NEW DELHI, Mar 13: The Centre may ask Jammu and Kashmir Government for “judicious use” of Public Safety Act, a move that comes in the midst of a controversy over the release of senior separatist leader Masarat Alam.
“We are planning to ask J&K Government for judicious use of Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 1978,” a Home Ministry official said.
The release of Alam, who had spearheaded the campaign of stone-pelting in the Valley in 2010 and was detained under PSA, from custody a few days ago had triggered a row.
BJP, which shares power with PDP in J&K, had come under attack over Alam’s release.
The three interlocutors, appointed by the Government during previous UPA Government, had recommended amendment to PSA to dilute its provisions.
The interlocutors in their report while recommending amendment of PSA said that during their meetings, most of the Kashmiri delegations criticised the Act saying it had sweeping powers which make it open to misuse and authorities should stop indiscriminate use of PSA.
“While its use has been considerably reduced now, the Act’s sweeping powers make it open to misuse and should be amended accordingly,” the report said.
The main problems with PSA are under Chapter IV (Power to make orders detaining certain persons), Section 8 (Detention of certain persons), it said.
This section provides a vast number of reasons for detention, ranging from “promoting, propagating, or attempting to create feelings of enmity or hatred or disharmony on grounds of religion, race, caste, community, or region” to incitement, instigation, abatement and actual commission of such acts, and leaves it to District Collectors or District Magistrates to decide, giving a twelve-day period within which the Government has to approve the detention. The period for approval should be no more than four days, the interlocutors said.
Secondly, PSA does not distinguish between offences when it comes to the detention period. It allows detention for up to one year for disturbance of public order and two years for actions “prejudicial to the security of the State”, the report said.
Given the fact that disturbance of public order can range from minor to major acts, the detention period should range from one week for minor offences to one month for major offences but no longer, the interlocutors said.
Assuming that actions “prejudicial to the security of the State” constitute far graver offences, three months’ detention should be ample for proceeding to trial. Juveniles should not be held under PSA at all, the report said.
The Home Ministry is also going through an observation made by the J&K High Court in a case involving Masarat Alam.
“The case in hand illustrates how the power under Section 8 of J&K Public Safety Act 1978 to place a person under preventive detention has been exercised in an arbitrary manner, in effect converting preventive into punitive detention,” the High Court said on June 2, 2012. (PTI)
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