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Even Typographical Errors In Dossier Copied By Magistrate, No Application Of Mind: JKL High Court Quashes Preventive Detention Of Alleged LeT Aide
Basit Amin Makhdoomi
31 Jan 2023 8:30 AM GMT
The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Monday observed that every case in which preventive detention of any citizen of India is sought by law enforcement agencies, the same demands a very fact-sensitive and law-centric application and approach of mind.A bench of Justice Rahul Bharti quashed a preventive detention order against a detenue, who was "painted and portrayed" as an aide...
The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Monday observed that every case in which preventive detention of any citizen of India is sought by law enforcement agencies, the same demands a very fact-sensitive and law-centric application and approach of mind.
A bench of Justice Rahul Bharti quashed a preventive detention order against a detenue, who was "painted and portrayed" as an aide of Lashar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit by the detaining authority, merely one year after a previous detention order against the said detenu was quashed.
Observing that in the period intervening the date of quashment of first detention order and the issuance of second preventive detention order there was no factual content stated in the dossier by the Superintendent of Police Handwara on the basis of which the petitioner could be said to have indulged in acts of omission or commission whereby his personal liberty was reckoned as a circumstance posing live threat to the so called security of the State, Justice Bharti stated that the dossier so served by the concerned SP before the District Judge was nothing but repetition of the premise upon which the first detention order was passed.
“An application of law lives in its seriousness, and the law detests non-seriousness on the part of law operating hands and minds. The preventive detention law is no exception to this demand and command”.
The bench also took note of the fact that post his release by quashment of the first detention order the petitioner was put on a bond for keeping peace under section 107/151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973; the dossier nowhere mentioned that the petitioner ever breached his bonds so as to be branded as a case for detention under the Public Safety Act, 1978.
Questioning the application of mind on the part of detaining authority with regard to the instant matter Justice Bharti observed that District Magistrate seems to have relieved himself from labour and effort of independent application of mind to the dossier case put up by the SP and instead the Magistrate simply carried out re-typing of the dossier in the name of showing so called application of mind.
“So much so, even the typographical error/s and omission of the dossier was/were imported and repeated as it is by the District Magistrate Kupwara”, the court frowned.
Citing this matter as a best exhibit of the mechanical application of mind on the part of the District Magistrate, Justice Bharti in his order said that it seems in the instant case the issuing of the preventive detention order against the petitioner and depriving him of his personal liberty, which is a fundamental right under the Constitution of India, is a matter of pleasure for the authority seeking preventive detention and the authority granting the said preventive detention.
Accordingly the bench the detention order ex-facie bad in the eyes of law and quashed the same.
Case Title: Javaid Ahmad Bhat Vs UT of J&K
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (JKL) 13
Coram : Justice Rahul Bharti
