Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Wednesday quashed detention of three persons who were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Allowing their habeas corpus petitions, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed the government to release forthwith from preventive custody Sheeraz Ahmad Sheikh of Batamuran Wanpora, Shopian and Umar Yousaf Bhat of Pulwama provided they were not required in other cases.
Sheikh was taken into preventive custody after District Magistrate Shopian passed an order under PSA in this regard on 8 August 2019 while Bhat was booked by virtue of an order issued by District Magistrate Pulwama on 24 November 2020.
While quashing the detention order of Sheikh, the court said: “Lack of awareness on part of the detaining authority and failure to consider the relevant material that is bail granted to the detainee in FIR No 25/2019 by the competent court of jurisdiction has vitiated the subjective satisfaction allegedly derived by the detaining authority for putting the detainee under preventive detention.”
The court pointed out that had the relevant material in the shape of bail order and report of Forensic Science Laboratory been brought to the notice of the detaining authority, there was every possibility of the detaining authority taking a different view in the matter.
Meanwhile, allowing a plea of Abid Ahmad Shah from Bala Nowpora of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, a bench of Justice Tashi Rabstan quashed the detention order dated 10 August 2019 issued by the District Magistrate Shopian under the PSA against the detainee.
The court directed the government to release the detainee from the preventive custody forthwith, provided he was not required in any other case.