ISLAMABAD: The High Court of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has invalidated the fourth consecutive detention order under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) against former spokesperson of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Advocate Zahid Ali. The court has directed the authorities to compensate him for the unlawful detention.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Advocate Zahid Ali of Nehama, Pulwama, challenged the detention order passed by the district Magistrate Pulwama in his habeas corpus petition before the court.
In his judgment, Justice Rahul Bharti stated, “This court cannot resist but to hold that the preventive detention of the petitioner is mala fide and illegal”. He further added, “The petitioner has been deprived of his liberty for a cumulative period of more than 1,080 days of preventive custody, covered under the span of four detention orders from 2019 to March 2024.”
“The latest preventive detention of the petitioner compounds the illegality, breaches and violates the petitioner’s fundamental right to personal liberty with impunity, entitling him to compensation,” the judgment highlighted.
While Advocate Zahid Ali sought compensation of Rs 25 lakh, the court directed the occupation authorities to pay Rs 5 lakh. This marks the first instance where the court has penalized the authorities for detention under the PSA.
The order noted that the court had quashed the three previous detentions of the petitioner not on technical grounds but on the merits of the case.
Advocate Zahid Ali was initially detained under the draconian law on March 5, 2019. The detention was nullified by the court on July 11, 2019. However, eight days after the release order and while still under detention, the authorities imposed another PSA against him on July 19, 2019, which was again quashed by the court on March 3, 2020.
After a brief period out of jail, the IIOJK administration imposed the PSA against Zahid Ali for the third consecutive time on June 29, 2020, which was subsequently quashed by the court on February 24, 2021. The fourth detention order is dated September 14, 2022.
