Srinagar, Apr 01: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed detention of four persons, who were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and ordered their immediate release, if not needed in any other cases.
Allowing three separate habeas corpus petitions, the court overturned the detention orders against Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar of RedwaniPayeen, Kulgam, Rayees Ahmad Itoo of district Kulgam and Mohammad Khumani Dar alias Gabbar of Kawni Pulwama.
However, the court upheld the detention order against Muntazir Ahmad Mir passed by District Magistrate Pulwama in November last year.
The petitioners had challenged their detention orders mainly on the ground that the detaining authority passed the detention orders mechanically without application of mind, inasmuch as the allegations mentioned in the grounds of detention have no nexus with the detenue and that the same have been fabricated by the police in order to justify its illegal action of detaining the detenue.
It was contended that the procedural safeguards have not been complied with inasmuch as the whole of the material which formed the basis of the impugned detention order has not been supplied to the petitioner.
Justice M.A Chowdhary while quashing the detention order of Imtiyaz noted that the last alleged activity attributed to the detenuehas taken place in the year 2018 and thereafter no fresh activity has been attributed to him.
The court said that the detention order has been passed after a delay of four years from the last alleged activity.
“This delay between the activity and the detention order has snapped the proximity of the detention order with the alleged apprehension more particularly given the fact that the detenuewas admitted to bail during the period of this delay and no fresh activity has been attributed to him, which would have warranted to nurture the apprehensions of the detaining authority,” the court observed.
Justice Chowdhary held that this unexplained delay renders the detention order unjustified and unreasonable in the eyes of the law.
The court of Justice Sanjay Dhar while setting aside the detention orders of Itoo and Khumani noted that, the detainee has been hampered by non-supply of vital documents in making an effective representation before the Advisory Board, as a result whereof his case has been considered by the Advisory Board in the absence of his representation, as is clear from the detention record.
The court noted that vital safeguards against arbitrary use of law of preventive detention have been observed in breach by the respondents in this case rendering the impugned order of detention unsustainable in law.
“It needs no emphasis that the detenue cannot be expected to make an effective and purposeful representation which is his constitutional right guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India, unless and until the material, on which the detention is based, is supplied to the detenue,” Justice Dhar said.
The court said that failure on the part of detaining authority to supply the material renders the detention order illegal and unsustainable in law.
