Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Thursday quashed the preventive detention of two persons from south Kashmir under the Public Safety Act (PSA), holding that serious procedural lapses by the authorities vitiated the detention process and violated the constitutional safeguards guaranteed to detainees.
A bench of Justice Rahul Bharti set aside the detention orders against Asif Ahmad Dar of Pulwama and Amir Wani of Anantnag and directed their immediate release.
In case of Asif Ahmad Dar who was booked under PSA on 30 April last year, the Court observed that while the detention order informed him of his right to make a representation to both the government and the detaining authority, the execution report prepared by the police informed him only about his right to approach the government, thereby denying him a vital constitutional safeguard.
In Amir Wani’s case, the Court similarly held that mandatory procedural safeguards had not been followed while processing his preventive detention passed on 5 August last year, rendering the detention legally unsustainable.
The court observed that preventive detention order directly curtails personal liberty, must strictly comply with constitutional and statutory safeguards. Any deviation from these mandatory requirements strikes at the root of the detention and cannot be sustained in law.
The Court further observed that such procedural omissions often come to light only after judicial scrutiny of the detention records, as a detainee cannot reasonably be expected to know what transpires within government files.
Holding that the constitutional safeguards had been violated in both cases, the Court quashed the detention orders and all consequential government orders, directing the jail authorities to release the duo forthwith.
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