The Jammu & Kashmir High Court on Friday quashed detention orders of prominent religious clerics Moulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi and Mushtaq Ahmad Veeri, who were booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) by authorities in 2022.As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Justice Sanjay Dhar and Justice Rajnesh Oswal quashed the detention orders of Dawoodi and Veeri, respectively.Both the religious clerics have a large following in the Kashmir Valley. While Dawoodi is the head of ‘Tehreek-e- Sout-ul Auliya’, Veeri is affiliated with Jamiat-ahle-Hadees (JaH).Quashing the detention order of Dawoodi, the High Court said the contention of the petitioner that he has not been provided the relevant material appears to be well-founded.“The first ground projected by the petitioner is regarding non- supply of relevant material and non-application of mind on the part of detaining authority while passing the impugned detention order, which prevented him from making an effective representation against his detention. From a perusal of the grounds of detention, which forms part of the detention record produced by the learned counsel for the respondents, it transpires that no FIR has been shown to have been registered against the petitioner. However, two documents under the heading “Receipt of Ground of detention & relevant record” and “Executive Report” that are annexed with the detention record, suggests that 12 leaves of material comprising detention order (01 leaf), Notice of detention (01 leaf), grounds of detention (02 leaves), dossier of detention (03 leaves), copies of FIR, statements of witnesses andother related relevant documents (05 leaves) have been furnished to the petitioner. Surprisingly, when no FIR is shown to have been registered against the petitioner, then how come 05 leaves of FIR etc. have been provided to him,” the court said.The Court said “it exhibits total non-application of mind and overzealousness on the part of the detaining authority, which casts serious doubt about the authenticity of the receipt.”It further said the detention record does not suggest that the representation submitted by Veeri through his brother has been considered by the Government.“The non- consideration of the representation indisputably amounts to violation of constitutional safeguards provided the provisions of Article 22(5) of the Constitution,” it said.While quashing the detention order of Veeri, Justice Justice Rajnesh Oswal said that “perusal of the grounds of detention also reveals that the same are vague more particularly in respect of allegations leveled against the petitioner that he was delivering anti- national speeches”.“No date, month and year of the alleged delivering of anti-national speeches have been mentioned in the grounds of detention. Law is well settled that order of preventive detention cannot be issued on vague grounds as it disables the detenue to make effective and purposeful representation against the same,” the Court said.It cited judgment of the Supreme Court in Jahangir Khan Fazalkhan Pathan V. Police Commissioner, Ahmedabad and another reported as (1989) 3 SCC 590, where in it has been held that the order of detention passed on vague grounds deprives the petitioner of his right to make an effective representation against the order of detention.The Court, however directed Veeri to furnish an undertaking before the district magistrate concerned that he will not deliver any hate or anti-national speech on any occasion after his counsel under instructions made a voluntary offer to submit an undertaking.“The undertaking shall be furnished by the petitioner with in the period of two days after his release from custody and the receipt of the same be furnished before Registrar, Judicial of this court,” the Court said
