High Court  quashes Uri man’s PSA detention

Srinagar, Apr 21: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has quashed preventive detention of a man from Baramulla under the Public Safety Act (PSA), noting that the curtailment of personal liberty must strictly comply with constitutional safeguards and cannot be based on vague or mechanical grounds.

A Bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal, while setting aside the detention order dated April 19, 2024 passed by the District Magistrate Baramulla against the detainee Maqsad Ali Kohli, directed the authorities to release him immediately, if not involved in any other case.

The Court underscored that Preventive detention laws mandate strict adherence to procedural safeguards, including timely communication of grounds, approval by the Government, and reference to the Advisory Board. “Any infraction, however minor, vitiates the detention,” it said. Kohli, a resident of Navarunda Uri, had assailed the detention order in a petition filed on May 18, 2024. In its decision, the court underlined the sanctity of personal liberty, saying procedural safeguards are not empty formalities but the only bulwark against arbitrary detention.   “The power of preventive detention, being drastic in nature, casts a corresponding duty upon the detaining authority to exercise the same with due care, caution, and circumspection,” the court said. While the Court observed that it cannot act as a mute spectator where the liberty of a citizen is curtailed without strict adherence to the mandate of law, it said: “If the subjective satisfaction is found to be based on vague, irrelevant, or insufficient material, or if the procedural safeguards have not been strictly followed, the detention order cannot be sustained”. Allowing Kohli’s plea, the court quashed the detention order dated April 19, 2024 against him and directed his release forthwith.