Rajesh Gupta
Jammu, June 10: The High Court has quashed the preventive detention of a Jammu resident booked under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act over allegations of forest land encroachment, holding that the detention orders were founded on legally untenable grounds and reflected a clear lack of application of mind by the authorities.
While delivering the judgment in a habeas corpus petition HCP No. 117 of 202 filed by Talib Hussain of Sunjwan, Jammu, Justice Rajesh Sekhri ruled that the allegations levelled against the petitioner did not fall within the ambit of the PSA provisions invoked by the District Magistrate, Jammu, while ordering his detention in June 2024.
The case arose from a dossier submitted by the Divisional Forest Officer, Jammu, alleging that Hussain was a habitual encroacher who had occupied forest land in the Bahu Forest Range and Bahu Conservation Reserve.
The dossier further alleged that he had interfered with demarcation exercises, carried out illegal mining and land-levelling activities, and attempted to convert forest land into residential plots for sale.
Acting on the dossier, the District Magistrate, Jammu of the time, without his application of mind issued two detention orders bearing the same number and date under separate provisions of Section 8 of the PSA.
After hearing, Justice Sekhri observed that the allegations against Hussain centred on encroachment of forest land, illegal construction and land development activities and did not involve smuggling of timber or liquor, transportation of smuggled goods, or any of the activities specifically contemplated under Section 8(1)(a-1) of the PSA.
Court noted that the detention authority had invoked a provision intended to deal with timber and liquor smuggling despite the absence of any such allegation in the material placed before it.
The court described the detention orders as having been passed on “misplaced and non-existent grounds” and held that the subjective satisfaction recorded by the detaining authority was legally flawed.
The court also took exception to the reliance placed on allegations concerning encroachments attributed to the petitioner’s father. Justice Sekhri observed that two of the instances cited in the record related exclusively to the father’s alleged occupation of forest land, yet had been relied upon while seeking the petitioner’s detention.
This, the court held, further demonstrated non-application of mind on the part of the authorities. Rejecting the government’s objection that the petition was not maintainable because the detention had been challenged at the pre-execution stage, the court relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Additional Secretary to the Government of India v. Alka Subhash Gadia.
The High Court cautioned against what it described as a growing tendency of detaining authorities to reproduce allegations contained in dossiers submitted by sponsoring agencies without undertaking an independent assessment of the material.
Court added that such a “copy-paste culture”, strikes at the heart of the constitutional guarantee of personal liberty and reduces the detaining authority to a mere rubber stamp.
Justice Sekhri observed that preventive detention is an extraordinary measure intended to prevent future threats and cannot be employed as a substitute for ordinary criminal or civil proceedings.
The court found that the material on record neither disclosed any threat to the security of the State nor any issue affecting public order so as to warrant detention under the PSA. Allowing the petition, the High Court set aside the detention orders and directed that Hussain be released forthwith.
At the same time, it clarified that the authorities would remain free to pursue any civil or criminal remedies available under law in relation to the allegations of forest land encroachment.
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