Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashes preventive detention of Sajad Gul; says detaining government critics abuse of law

The tendency to detain "critics" of the government amounts to an abuse of the law, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court recently observed while quashing the preventive detention of Kashmiri journalist Sajad Ahmad Dar, also known as Sajad Gul [Sajad Ahmad Dar v. Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir]..Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice MA Chowdhary noted that the authority had justified Gul's detention by stating that he was a “negative critic” of the government’s policies and that he used his tweets to “provoke” people against the government.The Court emphasised that this could not be a ground to order the journalist's detention, particularly when the government could not show any specific instance of how Gul’s tweets provoked people against the government."Such a tendency on the part of the detaining authority to detain the critics of policies or commission/omission of the government machinery, as in the case of the present detenu-a professional media person, in our considered opinion is an abuse of the preventive law," the Court added. .The Court also noted that there was nothing to suggest that the journalist had uploaded any false story or any reporting that was not based on true facts. There was nothing to suggest that Gul had disrupted public order or created enmity as alleged by the government, the Court added. .Gul, who was working as a trainee reporter with the online media portal 'The Kashmir Walla', was detained under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act in January 2022. He had been in detention since January 16, 2022. In December 2022, a single judge of the High Court dismissed his petition challenging the preventive detention, leading the journalist to file an appeal before the division bench..On November 9, the division bench set aside the detention order on finding that it was vague and not sustainable in law. "The detention order based on such vague grounds is not sustainable, for the reason that the detaining authority, before passing the order, has not applied its mind to draw subjective satisfaction to order prevention detention of the detenu by curtailing his liberty which is a valuable and cherishable right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the Court said..Among other aspects, the division bench found that the detaining authority had not applied his mind before passing the detention order against Gul. The Court further observed that Gul was not provided with all relevant material relied upon by the detaining authorities to pass the detention order against him. This adversely affected his right to challenge his detention, the Court said. .Accordingly, the High Court quashed the detention order passed against the journalist by the district Magistrate, Bandipora on January 14, 2022..[Read Order]