India's Supreme Court on September 29 struck down a preventive detention order under the National Security Act (a law allowing authorities to hold people without trial to prevent threats to public order) against Mulla Afroz, an accused in the November 2024 violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. The bench ruled that the district magistrate had ignored relevant material, that a confession alone could not justify detention, and it fined the state government ₹10 lakh. The clashes, which killed four people, erupted during a court-ordered survey of a mosque that Hindu petitioners claim was built over a temple, and the ruling underscores judicial limits on the use of preventive detention.