J&K HC quashes PSA against Jamaat-e-Islami chief

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) slapped on Jamaat-e-Islami chief Abdul Hameed Ganaie. The court ordered the authorities to release him. The Jamaat-e-Islami chief was detained on February 22, 2019, from his Wazir Bagh home in Srinagar.

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) slapped on Jamaat-e-Islami chief Abdul Hameed Ganaie and directed the authorities to release him.

A Division Bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal and Justice Sanjay Dhar said that the authority while detaining Ganaie did not apply its mind. The Jamaat-e-Islami chief was detained on February 22, 2019, from his Wazir Bagh home in Srinagar.

Setting aside the detention order, the court said: "Neither in the dossier supplied by the Senior Superintendent of Police nor in the grounds of detention there is any whisper as to whether the appellant was ever arrested in the FIR/FIRs. There is no awareness shown by the Detaining Authority with regard to the status of the appellant, who is accused in such FIRs."

The high court with these reasons held that the order of detention is clearly vitiated by total non-application of mind by the detaining authority and it should have been held so by the writ court.

The court while quashing the detention order ordered the authorities to release Ganaie if he was not required in any other case.