The Biz Reporter
SRINAGAR, Nov 3: The High Court has quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) detention of a 27-year-old Pulwama resident, after two sons of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah – Advocates Zameer Abdullah and Zahir Abdullah – argued that the detention order suffered from non-application of mind, procedural lapses, and violation of Constitutional safeguards.
Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi while quashing the PSA detention of a 27-year-old Pulwama resident, Sajad Ahmad Bhat alias Baaber, observed that the order was based on “stale allegations” and reflected “non-application of mind” by the detaining authority.
“The detention order issued in 2025 on the basis of a 2020 FIR is an outcome of stale grounds,” the court said, adding that there was no live and proximate connection between Bhat’s alleged activities and the need to detain him in 2025.
Bhat had been booked in FIR No. 119 of 2020 under Sections 7/25 of the Arms Act and Sections 18, 23, and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly aiding terrorists. He was granted bail by the competent court in November 2023. Despite this, the District Magistrate, Pulwama, passed the detention order on April 30, 2025, citing threats to public order and security.
Advocates Zameer Abdullah and Zahir Abdullah argued that the detention order suffered from non-application of mind, procedural lapses, and violation of Constitutional safeguards. They contended that the documents forming the basis of detention were not supplied to the detainee, depriving him of the right to make an effective representation.
Justice Kazmi held that the Government had failed to demonstrate why preventive detention was necessary when the “ordinary law of the land” was sufficient to deal with the allegations.
The bench said the authorities had failed to establish any fresh grounds linking Bhat to recent activities prejudicial to security or public order. “The respondents have failed to indicate how the substantive law invoked earlier was not sufficient to deter the detenue from indulging in the alleged activities,” the judgment read.
Finding no justification for preventive custody, the court quashed the detention order, passed by the District Magistrate, Pulwama, and directed the authorities to release Sajad Ahmad Bhat forthwith, “if not required in any other case.”
“The petition is allowed,” Justice Kazmi concluded. “The detention being not in consonance with law deserves to be quashed.”
