THE Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir on a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of former Union Minister Dr Saifuddin Soz. The senior Congress leader has been under detention since August 5, the day when the special status of J&K was revoked. Mrs Mumtazunnisa Soz, his wife and the petitioner, in this case, contends that the issuing authority of the detention order provided no communication regarding the grounds upon which the order had been made. Further, despite repeated attempts, no copy of the detention order has been provided. Thus the leader could not make any representation, let alone an effective representation, against the detention order.
“In fact, it has been ten months since the detenu was placed on house arrest as per the purported directions of Respondent No. 2, and he has still not been furnished a copy of the Order in order to be able to make a representation, as set out under Article 22(5) as well as Section 13 of the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978”, the petitioner says.
The petition, filed through Advocate-on-Record Sunil Fernandes, also stressed on the fact that Section 8(3) of the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 provided for specific acts and commissions as offences under the Act. Thereby nothing outside of the same can be termed as an offence under the Act.
The Order of detention, according to the petitioner, not detailing the same would make the detention illegal and unconstitutional. After hearing senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and P Chidambaram, a two-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee asked the J&K Government to file its reply to the petition. The bench listed the matter for further hearing in the second week of July.
On August 5, by way of a Presidential Order, GoI revoked the special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and 35A of the Constitution of India. The state’s access to the internet and phone services was curtailed. Curfew has been imposed through Orders under S 144 of the Jammu & Kashmir Code of Criminal Procedure that prevents assembly of more than four persons in public spaces.
Several leaders belonging to opposition parties of the ruling dispensation were placed under house arrest. Earlier this year, former J&K chief ministers and National Conference leaders, Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah, were released from detention. Recently, former IAS officer Shah Faesal was put under house arrest a day after he was released from detention following revocation of stringent Public Security Act (PSA) against him.
