JAMMU, May 26: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the detention under PSA of Royal Singh and ordered his release from preventive detention provided he is not involved in any other case.
While quashing the detention order, Justice Mohd Yousaf Wani observed that as per the material brought before the detaining authority by the Senior Superintendent of Police Jammu, the alleged activities of the petitioner could have been understood and apprehended as prejudicial to “law and order” and not to “public order”.
“The alleged actions of the petitioner no doubt amount to infraction of laws for which the legal mechanism in place was already pressed into service. The invocation of the provisions of the Act to detain the petitioner rather than to pursue the prosecution against him appears to be an unjustified exercise tent-amounting to violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioner”, the High Court said.
“Under these circumstances, the non-application of mind is discernible in the matter. It is settled legal position that a detention order suffering from non-application of mind of the detaining authority cannot sustain under law”, High Court added.
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