J&K HC Quashes PSA Detention Of Baramulla Man

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Srinagar- The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has quashed the preventive detention of a Baramulla man under the Public Safety Act (PSA), observing that the detention order was founded on stale grounds and that the detaining authority failed to explain why ordinary criminal law was insufficient to deal with the allegations against him.

A bench of Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi allowed a habeas corpus petition filed by Mumtaza Akhter, sister of 49-year-old Tariq Ahmad War of Wailoo, Kralpora, Baramulla, and directed the authorities to release him forthwith.

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The judgment was pronounced on September 3.

War had challenged detention order No. 19/DMB/PSA of 2024, dated April 12, 2024, issued by the District Magistrate, Baramulla, under which he was placed under preventive detention.

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According to the petition, War had been detained on vague, irrelevant and non-existing grounds. His sister also alleged that he had not been furnished all the material relied upon by the detaining authority while passing the detention order.

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The High Court, after examining the matter, found that the grounds relied upon for the detention were stale and could not sustain the preventive detention order.

The court also noted that the detaining authority had failed to demonstrate why recourse to ordinary criminal law was inadequate or insufficient to deal with the allegations against War.

The court accordingly quashed the detention order and directed the authorities to release War forthwith, unless he was required in connection with any other case.

The judgment underscores that preventive detention, being an exceptional measure, must satisfy the statutory and constitutional safeguards governing such detention and cannot be sustained merely on the basis of stale or insufficient grounds.

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