STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Justice M.K Hanjura of State High Court(HC) quashed Public Safety Act (PSA) of Zafar-ul-Islam and Ghulam Mohammad Baghwan, who were booked under the aforesaid Act by District Magistrate Baramulla.
While quashing the Public Safety Act of two stone-pelters, HC held that merely on the ground that an accused in detention as an under-trial prisoner and was likely to get bail, an order of detention under the National Security Act should not ordinarily be passed.
Justice Hanjura observed that several questions have been raised in this petition, it is not necessary to deal with them in detail as we find that there is no definite material to show that the requirements of Section 13 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, requiring the grounds of order of detention to be disclosed/communicated to the person affected by the order has been complied with. “Though, in the affidavit filed by the State, it has been stated that the contents of the warrants and grounds of detention were served, read over and explained, and he was informed about his right to make a representation against the detention, if he so desired, there is no material placed on record to substantiate this stand”, the court observed adding that in the affidavit it is stated that the detenue refused to receive copy of the detention order and also refused to put his signatures on the documents. “The least the State could have done is to file an affidavit of the person who wanted to serve the relevant documents and an endorsement to the effect that there was refusal. Even the name of the official has not been indicated in the affidavit. That would have been sufficient to comply with the requirements of Section 13 of the PSA,” the court observed.
