Srinagar :
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to Jammu and Kashmir government on a petition by senior advocate and J&K High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom challenging his detention under Public Safety Act (PSA) and rejection of appeal by the High Court.
The J&k High Court had on May 28, 2020, dismissed his petition and upheld the detention under the PSA.
As per law, a person under PSA can be kept under detention for three to six years.
Qayoom was arrested on the intervening night of August 4-5, 2019. Next day, the Centre revoked the special status for Jammu and Kashmir. Qayoom is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Before, he was kept in Agra jail.
The petition alleges that the High Court upheld Qayoom’s detention based on First Information Reports filed against him in 2008 and 2010. “These FIRs are stale, irrelevant and have no proximate, pertinent or live link to the present, and are thus superfluous and extraneous to the satisfaction required in law qua the tendency or propensity to act in a manner prejudicial to public order,”the plea said.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave and Vrinda Gover, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, brought to the notice of the court that their client is more than 70-year-old and suffering from ailments including heart disease and diabetes. The threat of COVID-19 makes his life riskier than others, they said.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and BR Gavai issued a notice to J&K government and asked to reply by first week of July.
The Court asked the jail authorities to immediately provide summer clothes and other day-to-day necessities to Qayoom.
