Kanoon Ki Dastak
Srinagar, May 22, 2025 — In a significant ruling, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh quashed the preventive detention of Mohammad Yaqoob Bhat under the J&K Public Safety Act, 1978, citing serious procedural lapses and violations of constitutional safeguards.
Justice Rahul Bharti, delivering judgment in Habeas Corpus Petition No. 204 of 2024, observed that the detention suffered from a “singular flaw which is not of technical nature but of substantive nature” — namely, the failure of the authorities to forward the detainee’s representation to the Advisory Board.
The petitioner, through his brother, had submitted a written representation dated 9th April 2024 challenging his detention. Although this representation reached both the District Magistrate, Baramulla and the Home Department of J&K, it was never placed before the Advisory Board. Consequently, the Board erroneously recorded that no representation had been received, leading to its opinion confirming the detention.
The Court noted that this act of withholding the representation not only violated the petitioner’s rights under Article 22 of the Constitution but also vitiated the entire process of preventive detention. “Why the written representation was kept withheld from being forwarded to the Advisory Board has bothered none of the respondents,” the Court remarked, holding the lapse to be fatal to the legality of the detention.
Justice Bharti also found that the detainee was not provided with the supplementary dossier submitted by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Baramulla — thereby depriving him of the opportunity to make an effective representation. “Had this supplementary dossier been supplied, the leaves of the dossier would have been seven and not five,” the Court emphasized.
Referring to settled legal principles, the Court stressed that any deviation from procedural safeguards in preventive detention cases cannot be condoned, especially when it leads to deprivation of personal liberty.
As a result, the detention order dated 29th March 2024, along with its subsequent approval and extension orders by the Home Department, were set aside. The Court directed the immediate release of the petitioner from Central Jail Kot Bhalwal, Jammu.