Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 30: High Court has quashed the detention under PSA of Ishfaq Ahmad Kumar, an alleged stone-pelter.
While deciding habeas corpus petition, Justice Tashi Rabstan observed, “Supreme Court has held that preventive detention of a person by a State after branding him a ‘goonda’ 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”.
“The Supreme Court has further held that 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”, Justice Rabstan further said, adding “to classify the detenu as a ‘notorious stone pelter cannot be sufficient to invoke the statutory powers of preventive detention. 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 prevalent laws and taking recourse to preventive detention laws would not be warranted”.
“Preventive detention involves detaining of a person without trial in order to prevent him from committing certain types of offences. But such detention cannot be made a substitute for the ordinary law and absolve the investigating authorities of their normal functions of investigating crimes which the detenu may have committed”, the High Court said while quashing the detenion order.
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