What the high court’s strictures say about abuse of Jammu and Kashmir’s preventive detention law
An analysis of three verdicts shows the arbitrary use of the Public Safety Act with the police not releasing detainees despite court orders.
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Since 2019, Ali Mohammad Lone, a 61-year-old lawyer, has been detained four times under Jammu and Kashmir’s draconian preventive detention law.
Lone is a former spokesperson of the banned outfit, Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir. In all, he has spent 1,080 days in custody.
On April 3, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh not only termed Lone’s preventive detention “illegal” but also ordered the government to pay him a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.
While it is common for the court to strike down preventive detention cases, it is arguably the first time it has ordered compensation to an individual detained repeatedly under the Public Safety Act.
“This court cannot resist but to hold that the preventive detention of the petitioner is mala fide and illegal,” Justice Rahul Bharti said in his judgement in a petition filed by Lone’s son.
Every year, hundreds of individuals in Jammu and Kashmir are detained under the Public Safety Act, which allows the authorities to jail a person considered a threat to “security of the state” without trial for up to two years.
Enacted in 1978 to crack down on timber smugglers in the erstwhile state, the law has become synonymous with the government’s efforts to crush dissent in the restive Kashmir valley. It has been used...
