'Detention Based On 5-Year-Old FIR Suggests Lack Of Proximate Link': J&K&L High Court Quashes Preventive Detention Order Under Public Safety Act

 The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has held that a preventive detention order cannot be sustained when it is based on a stale and remote incident, observing that a five-year gap between the alleged offence and the detention demonstrates the absence of a live and proximate link between the two.

Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi was hearing a petition filed challenging the detention order dated 30 April 2025, passed by the District Magistrate under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978. The detention was premised on an FIR registered under the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2020, in which the detenue had already been granted bail. The petitioner contended that the order was passed mechanically within two days of the police dossier and without furnishing the relied-upon material, thus depriving him of the right to make an effective representation against his detention.

The Court noted that if the authorities responsible for detaining the detenue in preventive custody fail to justify as to how the substantive law was insufficient to prevent the detenue from indulging in the nefarious activities alleged against his person, the detention order cannot be sustained.

The Court observed that the impugned order was issued in the year 2025 against the detenue for his involvement in a case registered in the year 2020, and therefore, the same is based on stale grounds, and there is no proximate link to the alleged actions of the detenue that were deemed to be prejudicial to the maintenance of security of the State.

“The impugned order has been issued in the year 2025 against the detenue for his involvement in a case registered in the year 2020, the same therefore, is based on the stale grounds as the impugned order of detention has been passed five years later the date of the registration of the FIR. This fact goes on to suggest that there is no proximate link to the alleged actions of the detenue that were deemed to be prejudicial to the maintenance of security of the State,” the Court observed.

The Court said that the detention order cannot be sustained if there is no proximate link between the detenue and the alleged subversive actions of the detenue.

Holding that the detention order was not in consonance with the statute and the law on the subject, the High Court quashed the impugned order and directed that the detenue be released forthwith.

Advocates:

• Mr. Zameer Abdullah and Mr. Zahir Abdullah, for the Petitioner
• Mr. Furqaan Yaqoob, for the respondents

Case Title: Sajad Ahmad Bhat v. Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir & Ors. [HCP No. 183/2025]

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