Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 11: High Court has upheld the detention of a member of Huriyat Conference (G) by observing that the detaining authority in order to curb the anti-national activities of detenu has detained him under the provision of Public Safety Act.
The detenu-Assadullah Parray was detained by District Magistrate Banidpora under PSA on 22.9.2021 with a view to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order in terms of J&K Public Safety Act 1978.
Aggrieved of the detention order, detenue-Parray has filed the petition seeking quashing of the same on the grounds that he has been detained under the PSA on false and flimsy grounds without any justification as the grounds of detention are vague and mere assertions of the detaining authority and no prudent man can make an effective and meaningful representation against these allegations.
Justice Sanjay Dhar after perusal of the detention record said the same reveals that as many as 14 FIRs, from the year 2005 till 2021, have been registered against the detenue for his involvement in anti-national activities, which the court said are suggestive of the fact that the detaining authority, in order to curb the criminal/anti-national activities of the detenue, has detained him under the provisions of PSA.
It is in 2014, the detenue-Parray was detained under PSA and after his release from preventive custody the detenue, court has been informed, did not desist himself from indulging in anti-national activities.
“His inclination towards secessionist elements gave him a place in ‘Hurriyat (G)’ organization, of which he was an active member. His involvement in instigating the youth of the area for stone pelting and making the ‘bandh’ calls given by separatists successfully forced the authorities concerned to keep him under close surveillance. However, the detenue did not shun the path of his nefarious and anti-national activities”, reads the judgment.
Court has been informed that the detenue had also been found involved in a case of sabotage on 13.08.2021, before Independence Day, when Panchayat-Ghar Hakbara, where a function to celebrate the Day was to be organized, was set ablaze and a case vide FIR No. 58/2021 had been registered at Police Station Hajin for the commission of offences punishable under Section 426 IPC, 04 PPD Act and 03 of Sabotage Act.
“The detenue was thus found actively involved to carry on secessionist activities in Hajin area of district Bandipora. The detaining authority after keeping in view the activities of the detenue highly prejudicial and detrimental to the maintenance of the public order, detained him under preventive custody, in terms of the impugned order, which is under challenge in the present petition”, Justice Dhar said on perusal of the detention record.
“This Court, while examining the material, which is made on the basis of subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority, would not act as a court of appeal and find fault with the satisfaction on the ground that on the basis of the material before detaining authority another view was possible”, Justice Dhar recorded.
The Court on national security said that those who are responsible for maintenance of public order must be the sole judges of what the national security, public order or security of the State requires as such the preventive detention is devised to afford protection to society. “The object is not to punish a man for having done something but to intercept before he does it and to prevent him from doing. Justification for such detention is suspicion or reasonable probability and not criminal conviction, which can only be warranted by legal evidence”, court said.
Court in the meantime quashed two detention orders passed against the detenues-Khurshid Ahmad Parray of Mandigam Kupwara and Adil Farooq Mir of Dialgam Anantnag with the directions to the authorities to releases them from the preventive custody unless not required in any other case.
Follow our WhatsApp channel