Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashes preventive detention of Advocate

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday quashed the preventive detention of Advocate Mian Muzaffar, who was detained under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) in July last year on allegations of spreading secessionist ideologies [Mian Muzaffar V/s UT of Jammu and Kashmir]..The authorities had alleged that Muzaffar had been influenced by the secessionist ideologies of his uncle and senior lawyer, Mian Abdul Qayoom.Qayoom, a former president of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar is presently in jail after being arrested on allegations that he had a role to play in the the 2020 murder of Advocate Babar Qadri. He was arrested in the case in June 2024. Weeks later, Muzaffar was also arrested on the intervening night of July 13-14, 2024, although his family was not informed of the reasons why at the time of his arrest. It later came to light that he had been placed under preventive detention. The authorities claimed that Muzaffar had become a hardcore secessionist under the influence of his uncle, Qayoom. The government also claimed that Muzaffar had engaged in anti-national activities such as conducting seminars alongside separatist leaders such as Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik, to preach secessionist ideologies. Muzaffar denied these allegations and challenged his preventive detention before the High Court, in a petition filed through his wife. .On January 3, Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi quashed the preventive detention order against Muzaffar, terming it vague and illusive. "The detaining authority has not applied its mind to the relevant circumstances, the detention order is based on material extraneous to the scope and purpose of the statute. The grounds on which the impugned order has been based are not only vague, but illusive also. There is neither any clarity nor any live and proximate link between any past conduct of the detenue, and the imperative need to detain him. The advisory board has also not specified effectively the sufficient cause for the detention of the detenue," the judge held. .The Court found the government's allegations ambiguous. It noted that although the government claimed that Muzaffar had organised seminars to propagate secessionist ideologies, there was no mention of when these seminars were allegedly held.The Court concluded that Muzaffar's counsel was justified in submitting that the detaining authority had passed the detention order on flimsy grounds, by merely citing Muzaffar's profession as an advocate and his being a close relative of Mian Abdul Qayoom.The Court also found merit in the argument that Muzaffar's family was not given sufficient information about the allegations against him to file an effective representation challenging the preventive detention order. "The relevant material was not supplied to the family of the detenue or to the detenue even on their request, which was essential for making an effective representation," the Court observed. .Accordingly, the High Court quashed the detention order..Senior advocate RA Jan with advocate Suhail Mehraj represented Mian Muzaffar. Additional Advocate General Satinder Singh Kala appeared for the respondent-authorities. .[Read Order]