The High Court of Indian illegally occupied Jammu & Kashmir quashed detention of three persons who were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Allowing their habeas corpus petitions, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed the authorities to release forthwith from preventive custody Sheeraz Ahmad Sheikh of Batamuran Wanpora, Shopian and Umar Yousaf Bhat of Pulwama provided they were not required in other cases.
Sheikh was taken into preventive custody after District Magistrate Shopian passed an order under PSA in this regard on 8 August 2019 while Bhat was booked by virtue of an order issued by District Magistrate Pulwama on 24 November 2020.
While quashing the detention order of Sheikh, the court said: “Lack of awareness on part of the detaining authority and failure to consider the rele-vant material that is bail granted to the detainee in FIR No 25/2019 by the competent court of jurisdic-tion has vitiated the subjective satisfaction allegedly derived by the detaining authority for putting the detainee under preventive detention.—KMS
