After SC order, PSA against 26 people in J-K revoked

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday revoked the stringent Public Safety Act against 26 individuals which included a former Kashmir Bar association president, hours after the Supreme Court came down heavily on it over the Internet ban and imposition of prohibitory orders in the valley.

The list included 11 people from North Kashmir, 14 from South Kashmir and Nazir Ahmed Ronga, an advocate and former Kashmir Bar council president, who hails from Srinagar district.

These people were detained and booked under the PSA after August 5 last year when the Centre revoked special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories.

The detenues are likely to be released on Saturday as some of them are lodged in prisons located outside the union territory in places like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, they said.

The Jammu and Kashmir high court had quashed the PSA of some of the individuals recently and passed some scathing remarks against the officials who had signed the orders.

In a recent order, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, while quashing the PSA of Bilal Ahmad Mir, had said no documents were supplied to the detenu about the grounds on which he was detained.

"On these counts alone....the detention of the detenu is vitiated, the detenu having been prevented from making an effective and purposeful representation against the order of detention," the judgment had said.

Three-time chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who is a member of the current Lok Sabha, was also slapped with the PSA on September 17 after Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko had approached the Supreme Court with a habeas corpus petition seeking his production.

Scores of other politicians including his son Omar Abdullah and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti have been kept under preventive detention.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court said Internet access is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution and asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to review within a week all curbs in the union territory.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana and comprising justices B R Gavai and R Subhash Reddy, said magistrates should apply their mind and follow the doctrine of proportionality while passing prohibitory orders.