The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has quashed detention of five persons under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) and ordered their release from custody.
Allowing their separate petitions, a bench of Justice Rahul Bharti quashed the detention orders passed by various District Magistrates against the persons who were booked under PSA.
In response to one of the petitions filed on behalf of Mudasir Ahmad Mir challenging his detention order dated December 3, 2024, issued by the District Magistrate, Srinagar, the court quashed the order as the authorities failed to produce the complete detention record, including the latest order extending his detention.
“The Home Department of the Government of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir appears to be reckoning and reeling under an impression as if the summoning of detention record by the High Court in a habeas corpus writ petition is a mere formality to be complied with by handing over a photostat copy of the record through a Clerk to the Government Advocate for onward transmission to the Court, without the Commissioner/ Secretary, Home Department……first verifying the record file to ensure that the detention record in its entirety is made available for the perusal of the constitutional court which in turn is under a constitutional obligation to safeguard the personal liberty of citizens, be it an undertrial, a detenue, or a free citizen,” the court said while allowing Mir’s plea.
The Court held that continued preventive detention could not be legitimized in the absence of the order authorizing the latest extension of custody and directed Mir’s immediate release from Kot Bhalwal Jail, saying “to which effect the Superintendent concerned to act in abidance.”
While quashing detention order dated October 28, 2025 against Nazir Ahmad Dar of Srinagar, the court noted that that the District Magistrate Srinagar, took nearly two months to act on the detention dossier submitted by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, before issuing the PSA detention order.
The court held that “preventive detention requires prompt action, but in the present case the District Magistrate offered no explanation for the delay either in the detention order or in the grounds of detention”. The unexplained gap indicated that the dossier had been processed as a routine matter rather than one warranting urgent preventive action, rendering the exercise of powers under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, legally flawed and unsustainable, the court said.
Besides, the court quashed preventive detention order against Ishtiyaq Ahmad Malik, issued by the District Magistrate, Anantnag on April 26, 2025; Fayaz Ahmad Lone, who was detained following an order dated May 7, 2025, issued the District Magistrate Pulwama and Uneeb Naseer Mir, who was detained in terms of an order issued by the District Magistrate Srinagar, on 3 May 2025.
About The Author
