New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s sister Sara Abdullah Pilot has moved the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the Public Safety Act 1978.
The National Conference (NC) leader has been under detention since 5 August, when the Narendra Modi government scrapped the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir. He was initially detained under Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which allows the executive magistrate to detain someone if it is believed that he is likely to commit breach of peace or public tranquility.
Last week, Abdullah’s detention was extended, with charges slapped against him under Section 8 of the PSA. The provision allows a person to be detailed to “prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State or maintenance of the public order”.
Challenging his continued detention, Pilot’s habeas corpus petition said, “It is rare that those who have served the nation as members of parliament, chief ministers of a State, ministers in the Union, and have always stood by the national aspirations of India, are now perceived as a threat to the State.”
The petition was mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal Monday before a bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana. The bench has agreed to consider Sibal’s request for urgent listing.
The plea alleged that Abdullah has not been informed of the grounds on which he was detained, violating his fundamental rights under the Constitution. It further asserted that expressing disagreement with the policies of the central government “is a lawful right of a citizen in a democracy”.
“The order conflates ‘Government policy’ with the ‘Indian State’, suggesting that any opposition to the former constitutes a threat to the latter. This is wholly antithetical to a democratic polity and undermines the Indian Constitution,” it submitted.
The petition then called the order “arbitrary, vague, irrelevant, whimsical and fanciful” and urged the court to quash it.
‘Adopted radical methodology’
The Union home ministry’s dossier against Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act alleged that “while resorting to his dirty politics”, he had “adopted a radical methodology by way of instigating and provoking general masses against the policies of the Central Government”.
It said he has “posted many provoking and instigating comments/ideas on social networking sites, so as to instigate common people against the decision of the Parliament which had the potential of inciting violence and disturbing public order in the region”.
Abdullah was further accused of “favouring radical thoughts” and “planning and projecting his activities against the Union of India… while enjoying the support of gullible masses”.
Challenging these allegations, the petition pointed towards the “overwhelming evidence in the form of tweets and public statements” made by Abdullah before his detention, asking people to maintain peace and tranquility.
It submitted that Abdullah’s last tweet urged people to “stay safe and to stay calm” and “not take the law into your own hands”.
Violence will only play in to the hands of those who do not have the best interests of the state in mind. This wasn’t the India J&K acceded to but I’m not quite ready to give up hope yet. Let calm heads prevail. God be with you all.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 4, 2019
The petition called the allegations in the dossier “false and ridiculous”, pointing out that since Abdullah has been under detention for the past six months, he could not have made any public speech that would cause an apprehension of public order being affected.
Also read: Omar’s ‘mobilisation talk’, Mehbooba’s ‘separatist’ stand — why ex-CMs face PSA charge