High Court disposes of petition against Mian Qayoom’s PSA detention

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Thursday disposed of the petition against the detention of J&K High Court Bar Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom under PSA.
The divisional bench of the High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul observed that the Advocate General has submitted that the “activities attributed to and alleged against the detenue herein, reflected in the FIRs, are not such acts as, if once committed, would be treated as acts done in the past, and finished.”
The Court said the Advocate General also submitted that the “FIRs and the grounds of detention depict and relate to the secessionist ideology of the detenue, entertained, developed, nourished and nurtured by him over decades.”
The Court further observed that Advocate General has submitted “the ideology nourished and nurtured by the detainee cannot be confined or limited to time, qualify it to be called stale or fresh, unless of course, the person concerned declares and establishes by conduct and expression that he has shunned the ideology.”
The bench in its order observed that in the light of the argument taken by the Advocate General, “we leave it to the detenue to decide whether he would wish to take advantage of the stand of the Advocate General and make a representation to the concerned authorities to abide by it.”
“Simultaneously, we also leave it to the discretion of the government and the concerned competent authority to take a decision in terms of relevant provisions of JK PSA on any such representation, if made by the detenue.” “It is made clear that an adverse order on any such application, if made, shall not entail any legal proceeding, whatsoever,” the Court observed.