HC quashes PSA detention of JeI spokesman, two others

SRINAGAR — The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday quashed the detention of three people including the spokesman of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

Besides Zahid Ali, the Jamaat spokesman, the detention of district president of Bandipora Jamaat-e-Islami Sikander Malik and Samir Wani, an overground worker of a militant organisation based in Pulwama, were also quashed. The order was passed by Justice Rashi Rabstan.

Interestingly, Justice Rabstan in a similar case of PSA of Kashmir Bar Council president Mian Qayoom had said the courts were not the right forum to assess preventive detentions and the plea was sans merit.

“A law of preventive detention is not invalid because it prescribed no objective standard for ordering preventive detention and leaves the matter to the subjective satisfaction of the executive,” the court had said in an order last month.