Srinagar: Observing that life and liberty of the citizens of the State are of paramount importance, The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed detention order under Public Safety Act against a youth from Kulgam and ordered government to release him from preventive custody forthwith.
“Life and liberty of the citizens of the State are of paramount importance. A duty is cast on the shoulders of the Court to enquire that the decision of the Executive is made upon the matters laid down by the Statute and that these are relevant for arriving at such a decision. A citizen cannot be deprived of personal liberty, guaranteed to him/her by the Constitution and of which, he/she cannot be deprived except in due course of law and for the purposes sanctioned by law,” a bench of Justice M K Hanjura while quashing detention order under PSA of Mohammad Ramzan Sheikh son of Mohammad Shaban Sheikh of Rampora Kulgam. Represented before court by advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom, Sheikh was ordered to be booked under PSA by district commissioner Kulgam on 20 May last year and was lodged in central jail Srinagar.
The court said Sheikh could not have been detained after taking recourse to the provisions of the PSA when he was already in the custody of the police authorities in a case registered against him. “His custody in police for the offences has been converted into the custody under the (PSA) detention order. May be the detaining authority might have been laboring under the belief that if (Sheikh) applies for bail, he may succeed in seeking his release but this apprehension of the detaining authority could have been guarded against by resisting and opposing the bail application. In the event of his release on bail, the State could have exercised its right to knock at the doors of the higher forum. This single infraction knocks the bottom out of the contention raised by the State that (Sheikh) can be detained preventatively when he is already in custody and has not applied for bail,” the court said, underling that “it cuts at the very root of the State action”. The State could have taken recourse to the ordinary law of the land, the court said further.
“The order of detention bearing No. 48/DMK/PSA//2017 dated 20th of May, 2017, passed by the
Respondent No. 2-District Magistrate, Kulgam, is quashed with a further direction to the respondents to release the person of Mohammad Ramzan Sheikh forthwith from the preventive custody,” the court said.
