Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 16: High Court has quashed two detention orders under Public Safety Act (PSA) with the direction to release the detenues and upheld the PSA of an Over Ground Worker (OGW).
Court quashed the PSAs of Arshid Ahmad Khan and Burhan Ayoub Sofi, who were detained under the PSA by the District Magistrates of district Ganderbal and Srinagar on 10.08.2023 and 24.09.2022 respectively.
The court while quashing the PSA of Khan said, the District Magistrate appears to have passed the impugned order in a routine manner being in different to the import of preventive detention as or detained in the Act, passing of an order without application of mind goes to the root of its validity, and in that case, the question of going into the genuineness or otherwise of the grounds does not arise.
In Sofi’s case, the court held the detention order illegal for not supplying the detention material to the detenue in order to make representation before the competent authority. “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. The failure on the part of detaining authority to supply the material renders the detention order illegal and unsustainable in law”, court said.
The court with these reasons quashed their PSAs and allowed their pleas challenging the PSAs and directed the authorities to release both the detenues from the preventive custody.
The court upheld the PSA of detenue Sayar Ahmad Shah. He was detained vide order dated 01.02.2024 issued by District Magistrate, Pulwama with a view to prevent him from acting, in any manner, prejudicial to the security of the State.
The grounds of detention reveal that the detenue-Shah was in touch with his militant brother, Imtiyaz Shah of banned militant organization Al-Gazwat-ul- Hind (AGUH), to whom he had been providing every kind of logistic support.
“There are specific allegations and assertions made in the grounds of detention. Therefore, it cannot be stated that the allegations made in the grounds of detention are vague or lacking in material particulars”, the court said and dismissed his petition challenging the PSA with the observation that there is no merit in this case.
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