New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir high court on January 3 quashed the preventive detention of advocate Mian Muzaffar who was detained in July last year for allegedly “propagating secessionist ideologies.”
While setting aside the preventive detention order against Muzaffar under the Public Safety Act (PSA), 1978, the single judge bench of Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi held that the detention order was based on vague and flimsy grounds and lacked sufficient material to justify the detention, reported Lawbeat.in.
“The detaining authority has not applied its mind to the relevant circumstances, the detention order is based on material extraneous to the scope and purpose of the statute. The grounds on which the impugned order has been based are not only vague, but illusive also,” said the court in its order.
“There is neither any clarity nor any live and proximate link between any past conduct of the detenue, and the imperative need to detain him. The Advisory Board has also not specified effectively the sufficient cause for the detention of the detenue,” the court added.
Since July last year, Muzaffar has been under preventive detention with his family allegedly not being informed of the reasons for his arrest at the time.
“If the detenue is not informed about his right as enshrined in the Constitution, the opportunity granted by the Constitution itself becomes an exercise in futility if not a nullity. The grounds of detention must be self – sufficient and self – explanatory,” said the court.
“The detaining authority is under an obligation to furnish all the pertinent and proximate facts and material relied upon in passing the detention order to the detenue. In the instant case the relevant material was not supplied to the family of the detenue or to the detenue even on their request, which was essential for making an effective representation,” said Justice Kazmi in his verdict.
The court quashed the detention order and ordered that Muzaffar be released.
