Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the detention of a 26-year-old youth under the controversial Public Safety Act, stating that the authorities did not properly review the evidence for the detention.
The court ruled that there was clear "non-application of mind" in this case.
Justice Puneet Gupta stated that infringing on personal liberty is unacceptable without a solid reason.
“The incidents referenced before the first order and in the second order of detention are identical. The right to life and liberty cannot be restricted by unjustified actions,” the court observed, ordering Irfan Ahmed's release from District Jail Baramulla.
The District Magistrate of Shopian, through Order No. 132/DMS/PSA of 2022 dated June 5, 2022, had placed Irfan Ahmad Kuttay, son of Gulshan Ahmad Kuttay from Chattipora, Shopian, under preventive detention to stop him from posing “a threat to the security of Jammu and Kashmir,” and detained him in District Jail, Baramulla.
The detainee's father, through his lawyer, argued that Irfan had been arrested in an old case for which he had already been granted bail, and his detention under the PSA was previously overturned.
According to the news agency KNT, the petitioner claimed that after the PSA was quashed, the District Magistrate of Shopian detained Irfan again under the same FIR without any valid reason.