The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) slapped on banned Jamaat-e-Islami chief spokesperson Advocate Zahid Ali saying “the grounds of detention were repeated by the detaining authority which were earlier quashed by the court.”
The judgment passed by the Justice Sanjeev Kumar of High Court of J-K on Wednesday reads,”That the impugned order of detention has been passed on same facts and for the same activities which were part of the grounds of detention in the earlier detention order passed against the detenue, which was quashed by this Court and, therefore, the same is not sustainable in law.”
It reads, “That the detaining authority has not shown any awareness that challan in FIR No. 339/2008 registered at Police Station Pulwama has since been presented in the competent Court of Law, nor is any awareness shown by the detaining authority with regard to the bail orders granted by the competent Courts in the FIRs indicated in the grounds of detention.”
“That the grounds of detention are vague, general and mostly pertaining to the alleged activities of the detenue as a member of Jamat-e-Islami, which came to be banned by the Government only when the detenue was already in custody of the respondents and there is no fresh activity attributed to the detenue after the ban of aforesaid organization.”
The judgment further reads, “That the detenue has been detained by the detaining authority on the ground that he had been pursuing the cases of the militants in the Court of Law. Performance of professional duties by a lawyer cannot be ground for detaining a person in preventive custody nor can such professional activities be considered prejudicial to the security of the State. “
Pertinently, Ali was taken away by Jammu and Kashmir police on 30 June last year from his residence in Nehama, Pulwama, and was subsequently detained at Police Station Kakapora. Later on, he was moved to Srinagar Central Jail. As per official orders PSA was slapped on him on 29 June last year by the authorities. (KDC)
