Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashes detention of Shopian man

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the preventive detention of Mashooq Ahmad Shah, a resident of Shahlatoo in Shopian, who had been held under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for nearly 10 months.

Justice Rajnesh Oswal ordered Shah’s immediate release, noting that the grounds provided by authorities were “false, incorrect, vague and non-existent.” The detention, which began in December 2023, was based on a police dossier alleging that Shah possessed a “tendency towards anti-national activities” and enjoyed “social acceptability” among local youth, which authorities claimed could be exploited by terrorist outfits to build underground networks.

The court found that the authorities failed to provide specific details to support these claims. Specifically, the dossier mentioned contacts with individuals or organizations with “extremist leanings” but did not identify them, and alleged attempts to influence youth without specifying who the individuals were or when the incidents occurred. The court ruled that such vagueness prevented the detainee from effectively challenging the order, thereby vitiating the detention.