Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Feb 20: High Court while upholding the detention of a detenu under Public Safety Act, said if a person already in custody does not bar the detaining authority to detain him under preventive detention if the circumstance warrant so.
Justice Sanjay Dhar dismissed the petition of detenu Danish Habib Wani of Hygam Sopore, whereby he had challenged the detention order of District Magistrate Baramulla on the ground that he was already in custody in connection with FIR of 2019 when detention order was passed against him.
Justice Dhar said the pendency of prosecution in a substantive offence is no bar to an order of preventive detention. “Preventive detention and prosecution are two different areas. In a prosecution, an accused is sought to be punished for past acts whereas in preventive detention, the past conduct of a person becomes a material for inferring about his future course of probable conduct”, Justice Dhar recorded.
Government counsel while opposing to quash the detention of the detenu submitted that the detention was necessitated because of involvement of the detenu in very serious offences against the state as mentioned in the FIR registered against him.
Court after perusal of the grounds of detention said the detaining authority has taken pains to not only mention the dates of incidents but also the names of the militants as also the organizations with whom the detenu had developed contacts. “Therefore, by no stretch of imagination if can be said that the grounds of detention are vague”, court said.
Court on detaining the detenu under PSA despite being in custody at the time of passing of detention order said, the apprehension of the detaining authority that there is likelihood of detenu being admitted to bail cannot be interfered with by the court.
Court has turned down the arguments of detenu counsel that the grounds of detention were in English and the detenu being illiterate person could not understand the contents of grounds of detention and no translated scripts of the grounds of detention were furnished to him for making a representation against the same.
While as the record reveals that the detenu has qualified 12th class and during his detention had sought permission to appear in B A examination which means court said, the detenu is a sufficiently educated person. “…I do not find any merit in this petition. The same is accordingly dismissed”, court concluded.
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