Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter seeks SC permission for her mother to conduct political activity

Iltija Mufti sought amendments to the habeas corpus plea she filed in the SC in February challenging her mother’s detention under the stringent Public Safety Act.

File photo of former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti | PTI

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti has filed an application before the Supreme Court, seeking amendments to the habeas corpus plea she had filed before the top court challenging her mother’s detention under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

The amendments seek permission for Mehbooba to conduct political activities as she heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but has been under detention for more than a year.

Represented by senior advocate Aakarsh Kamra, the application was filed before the Supreme Court on 18 September, but it is yet to be listed.

In February this year, Iltija had filed the habeas corpus petition in the apex court, challenging her mother’s detention under PSA.

“The captioned Writ Petition has challenged Detenu’s detention on several grounds, including that the grounds and the dossier based on which grounds of detention have been formed are stale, vague and that they suffer from non-application of mind, malice in law,” the application stated.

“The Detention Order based on stale grounds have become staler even more since the Petition was filed and the Respondent Administration has continued to act with total non application of mind and the malice in law has only been reinforced and aggravated in confirming and extending the order of detention for further periods,” it further stated.

Iltija has sought directions from the apex court to the respondents, which in this case is the J&K administration, to permit her mother to conduct political activities at her residence, including “meeting officials of her political party, the people and the constituents of the constituencies that she has represented in Parliament”.

“Pass an ad-interim direction to the Respondents to allow her to be visited by her close relatives and family at a reasonable frequency and in any event at least five visits a week. Pass an ad-interim direction to the Respondents to reinstall the land-line telephone connection at the Detenu’s residence and to allow her access to the same,” the application further stated.

My mother’s detention ‘illegal’

Iltija told ThePrint her mother’s detention is “illegal and unquestionable in a democracy”.

“I am challenging her (Mehbooba Mufti) PSA order and equally challenging the extensions. A key opposition leader has been jailed for over a year without recourse to trial,” she said.

“I am bringing to the SC’s notice that despite its order in February, the J&K administration is yet to even file a reply and shows you the respect they have for courts and SC. I am also bringing to notice of court the treatment Mufti has received where she has been deliberately kept out of bounds for party people and attend to her duties as JK PDP president,” Iltija added.

Mehbooba booked under PSA in February

Mehbooba was among the scores of politicians who were detained last year in August when the Modi government revoked the special status of J&K and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories. 

After being detained at multiple government facilities in Srinagar, Mehbooba was booked under the PSA in February along with other senior politicians, including former CM Omar Abdullah. 

The PDP chief was then transferred to her Gupkar Road residence, which has been turned into a sub-jail. Her PSA order has been subsequently extended on multiple occasions.