HC quashes Pulwama youth’s PSA detention

Srinagar, Nov 3: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has ordered the release of a youth from south Kashmir’s district Pulwama from custody after quashing his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

After hearing advocates Zameer Abdullah and Zahir Abdullah on behalf of the detainee and the government through its counsel, a bench of Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi quashed the detention order the District Magistrate Pulwama had issued on April 30 this year against Sajad Ahmad Bhat alias Baaber of Rajpora, Pulwama, observing that the same had been issued against the 27-year-old for his involvement in a case registered in 2020.

While the court noted that the detention order was based on the stale grounds as the same was passed five years later the date of the registration of the FIR, it said, “This fact goes on to suggest that there is no proximate link to the alleged actions of the detainee that were deemed to be prejudicial to the maintenance of security of the State.”

The Apex Court in various pronouncements has held that the detention order cannot sustain if there is no proximate link between the detainee and his alleged subversive actions, the court said.

The court observed that the District Magistrate Pulwama had passed the detention order on April 30 after the detainee was found involved in the case FIR No 119 of 2020 of Police Station, Rajpora.

“The respondents (authorities) have failed to indicate as to how the substantive law, pressed into service against  the detainee by virtue of FIR No 119/2020 of Police Station Rajpora, wherein, the detention have been granted bail also, was not sufficient to prevent the detainee from indulging in the activities alleged against his person,” the court said, while relying on  Apex court’s judgment that “ if the authorities fail to justify as to how the substantive law was insufficient to prevent the detainee from indulging in the nefarious activities alleged against his person, the detention order cannot sustain”.

Allowing Bhat’s plea against his detention order, the court directed the authorities to release him from custody forthwith, if he was not required in any other case.