Srinagar, Oct 3: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has quashed the detention of a man from south Kashmir’s Shopian under Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), holding that the grounds of detention were vague and that the authorities had failed to decide his representation within a reasonable time.
Allowing his plea assailing the detention order dated December 23, 2025 passed by the District Magistrate Shopian, a Bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal ordered that the detainee Mashooq Ahmad Shah be released from preventive detention forthwith, provided he was not required in connection with any other case.
While quashing the detention order against Shah, the court observed that the “vagueness” in ground of detention deprived the detainee of an effective opportunity to make a representation against his detention and amounted to a violation of the constitutional guarantee under Article 22(5).
The court observed that vagueness in the grounds of detention strikes at the root of the subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority and vitiates the detention order.
The court also took note of the delay in considering Shah’s representation. The representation was received on January 14, 2026, but was decided only on March 2, 2026, with no explanation offered by the respondents for the delay of more than one and a half months.
Moreover, the court observed that Section 13 of the JK PSA requires the grounds of detention to be communicated within the prescribed period and provides the detainee an earliest opportunity to make a representation. The representation must consequently be considered at the earliest opportunity, it noted.
After the court held that the unexplained delay rendered the detention order illegal, it quashed the order and directed the authorities to release Shah from preventive custody forthwith.
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