Wife of Saifuddin Soz moves SC against her husband’s house detention

New Delhi : The wife of former Union minister and senior Jammu and Kashmir Congress leader Saifuddin Soz moved the Supreme Court on Friday seeking he be produced before the court as also the quashing of the order by which he has been under house arrest since August 5 last year.
Mumtazunnisa Soz, wife of the octogenarian leader, alleged that till date the reasons for the detention have not been supplied to them and they are unable to challenge the arrest under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978. This makes “his detention not only illegal, mala fide and unconstitutional, but also extremely appalling”, she said.
“The detention of Prof. Saifuddin Soz is wholly contrary and perverse to the constitutional safeguards laid down under Articles 21 (right to life) and 22 (right to know the reasons of arrest), as well as the law on preventive detention.
“Not only does it attract the vice of unconstitutionality, it is also in contravention of the statutory scheme of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, under which the detention has purportedly been made,” said the petition settled by senior advocate AM Singhvi.The Centre had abrogated certain provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution granting special status Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Presidential Order proposed that the state be bifurcated as Union Territory of Ladakh (centrally administered) and as Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir (with its Legislative Assembly). Prior to this announcement, several leaders…were placed under house arrest with internet and phone services curtailed,” said the plea filed through lawyer Sunil Fernandes. The habeas corpus (bring the person) writ plea has sought production of Soz before the court and a direction for quashing of the detention orders passed by the authorities.