STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Justice Tashi Rabstan on Thursday quashed PSA detention of Ishfaq Ahmad Kumar, alleged stone-pelter with the observation that to classify the detenu as a notorious stone-pelter cannot be sufficient to invoke the statutory powers of preventive detention.
While deciding habeas corpus petition, Justice Tashi Rabstan observed that Supreme Court held that preventive detention of a person by a State after branding him a ‘Gunda’ merely because the normal legal process is ineffective and time-consuming in ‘curbing the evil he spreads’, is illegal and that detention of a person is a serious matter affecting the liberty of the citizen. Preventive detention cannot be resorted to when sufficient remedies are available under the general laws of the land for any omission or commission under such laws, the Supreme Court observed. No doubt the offences alleged to have been committed by detenu are such as to attract punishment under the prevailing laws but that has to be done under the said prevalent laws and taking recourse to preventive detention laws would not be warranted. With these observations High Court quashed the detention order.
