By M Ahmad
Srinagar- Observing that the detention based on stale incident is vitiated in law, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh quashed an order under Public Safety Act against youth from Shopian and ordered his release forthwith if not needed in any other case.
A bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar passed the order on a petition filed by the detainee, Shafayat Amin Shah, through his father seeking quashment of his detention order (no.113/DMS/PSA of 2022) passed by the Deputy Commissioner Shopian on 9 April 2022 “to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the UT/Country.”
Shah had challenged the order on the ground that the detaining authority provided no explanation in the grounds of detention as to why he was not been arrested for long two years if the disclosures were available to them two years before.
He had also challenged the order on the ground that the relevant material including dossier, FIR, statements of witnesses, disclosure statement etc. relied upon by the detaining authority was never served to him which disabled him to make an effective and meaningful representation against his detention. He had contended that single belated allegation concerning a case registered two years before cannot be the basis for detention of the detainee after the lapse of two years.
“The impugned order of detention is quashed. Direction is issued to the respondents (authorities) to release the (detainee) from the preventive custody forthwith provided he is not required in connection with any other case,” the court said.
Meanwhile the court also ordered release of a man from Srinagar, Altaf Ahmad Dar who had challenged the order of detention by District Magistrate Srinagar on December 15, 2021. By virtue of the order, he had been taken into custody in order to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.
A bench of Justice Sanjay Dhar said that perusal of the counter affidavit filed by the authorities reveal that the order of detention was executed somewhere in December, 2021.
“In view of this, the order of detention has outlived its life and it seems that for this reason nobody has been appearing on behalf of the petitioner to pursue this petition”, said the court ordered Dar’s release from custody “if not already released and if not involved in any other case”.
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