J&K HC quashes 8-month detention of 76-yr-old ex-Kashmir bar union chief, slams charges as ‘imprecise’ | India News

SRINAGAR: J&Okay excessive courtroom quashed on Monday former Kashmir Bar Association president Nazir Ahmad Ronga‘s preventive detention since July 10 final yr on grounds of him being “a threat to public order”, saying the allegations levelled in opposition to the 76-year-old had been “vague”.
“There has been total non-application of mind on the part of the detaining authority in passing the order,” Justice Sanjay Dhar mentioned, directing the state govt to launch Ronga instantly.
The case filed in opposition to Ronga underneath the J&Okay Public Safety Act (PSA), among the many few legal guidelines of the erstwhile state to be retained after the nullification of Article 370 in 2019, accuses him of becoming a member of the separatist Hurriyat Conference with the intention of “spreading terrorism and to carry out unlawful activities, including secession of J&K from the Union of India”.
Ronga has been accused of organising “anti-national seminars, rallies and various other programmes within court premises to glorify secessionism“. These seminars had been attended by “secessionist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yaseen Malik”, the file states.
He was detained final yr on the orders of Srinagar’s district Justice of the Peace to “prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state”.
The laws invoked in opposition to him permits the administration to detain an individual with out trial for as much as two years if the person is taken into account a risk to order or nationwide safety. None of the common safeguards for an accused underneath the felony justice system apply.
Ronga had been beforehand detained underneath PSA within the aftermath of Parliament placing down Article 370. He was launched in 2020 after the excessive courtroom quashed his detention.
Challenging his detention for the second time, Ronga’s counsel Davendra N. Goburdhan mentioned his shopper was a law-abiding citizen who had by no means dedicated any offence, a lot much less one in opposition to the state. He mentioned Ronga “condemned terrorism and extremism through his lectures and speeches, but the respondents have slapped the order of preventive detention against him without any basis”.
Justice Dhar mentioned in his ruling that there was nothing to recommend the charges slapped on Ronga would stick.
“If we minutely examine the alleged activities of the petitioner after his release from the preventive detention in 2020, if comes to the fore that the detaining authority has not identified persons or like-minded members of the Kashmir Bar Association with the help of whom the petitioner intends to achieve his anti-national goals.”