Gauhati High Court quashes Assam activist’s NSA detention

A Division Bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund declared Mr. Doley’s preventive detention illegal, observing that the grounds cited by the authorities lacked the required proximity. A copy of the judgment was not immediately available. File

The Gauhati High Court on Friday (November 6, 2026) quashed the detention of land rights activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act (NSA), for protesting a luxury hotel project near Kaziranga National Park. The order paved the way for the release of the 40-year-old after 118 days in custody.

A Division Bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund declared Mr. Doley’s preventive detention illegal, observing that the grounds cited by the authorities lacked the required proximity. A copy of the judgment was not immediately available.

Mr. Doley, convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, was arrested on July 12, 2026, days after participating in a protest against the luxury hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village on the periphery of the one-horned rhino’s habitat.

According to the police, he trespassed into the site of a Tea Tribes Museum and an adjoining hotel project during the protest, carrying lethal weapons.

A court in Golaghat in eastern Assam granted him bail on July 29, 2026, observing that key witness statements had already been recorded and evidence tampering was unlikely. The Assam government invoked the NSA against him on July 30, 2026, to keep him in custody.

It alleged that Mr. Doley was involved in suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources, in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. The NSA allows preventive detention without trial for up to 12 months, subject to statutory safeguards.

Various indigenous communities opposed to the luxury hotel project protested Mr. Doley’s arrest and subsequent detention under the NSA. The communities have opposed the project for four years, citing concerns about loss of land and livelihoods.