New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s sister on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging his detention under the Public Safety Act. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner Sara Abdullah Pilot, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana.
Sibal told the bench that they have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Abdullah under the PSA and the matter should be heard this week. The bench agreed to urgent listing of the matter. In her petition, Pilot has said that there could be no material available to detain a person who has already been detained previously for six months.
“The grounds for the detention order are wholly lacking any material facts or particulars which are imperative for an order of detention,” the plea said, adding that the detention order is “illegal”. “It is rare that those who have served the nation as members of Parliaments, Chief Ministers of state, ministers in the union and have also stood by the national aspirations of India are now perceived as a threat to the state,” the plea said.
It said that on the intervening night of August 4/5, 2019, Abdullah was put under house arrest.
“It was later learned that Section 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 was invoked justifying such arrest”. “It is therefore of the utmost importance and of the utmost urgency that this court protects not only the individual’s Right to Life and Liberty but also protects the essence of Article 21 which is the cornerstone of Part 3 of the Constitution, a violation of which is anathema to all that a democratic nation stands for,” the plea said.
“Finally the order conflates governmental policy with the Indian state, suggesting that any opposition to the former constitute a threat to the later. This is wholly antithetical to a democratic polity and undermines the Indian constitution,” the petition said. The plea has also sought quashing of the February 5 order detaining Abdullah under the PSA. (PTI)
