India, Aug. 31 -- The Supreme Court on Monday, August 31, held that externment orders, which restrict a citizen's fundamental freedoms, cannot be passed routinely or merely on the basis of multiple criminal cases.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu quashed an externment order issued against a man in November last year, directing him to leave Raigarh and adjoining districts in Chhattisgarh for one year.

The court termed the order "infirm and indefensible", saying there were no cogent reasons to justify such an extreme measure.

"Merely because multiple criminal cases have been registered against a person would not, ipso facto, be a ground for ordering externment," the bench said.

It held that before exercising the power o...