Give free legal aid to PSA detainees: HC

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 16

In a decision which would provide succour to scores of parents whose wards have been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) since the abrogation of Article 370, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed the J&K Government to provide free legal aid to the detenues, wherever necessary.

The directions were passed today by a division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Dar in a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the J&K Public Safety Act and seeking its scrapping by the court. The court, however, did not issue notices in the main petition while posting the matter for consideration on November 6. The Chief Justice also suggested the petitioner lawyer to go through the J&K Reorganisation Act, which comes into effect from October 31, 2019, and by virtue of which the state has been downgraded into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The main thrust of senior High Court lawyer Syed Tassaduq Hussain, who is himself the petitioner in the case, was that the state which detains people under the Act must also provide legal aid to them, as a majority of the detenues could not afford to pay the expanses of the lawyers and the parents and relatives could not visit the detenues lodged at far-off places outside J&K.

He also submitted that if the amendment of Article 22 of the Constitution in J&K has been brought into force, the J&K Public Safety Act, 1978, will have to be struck down. He further submitted that if this amendment had not been brought into force in J&K, the High Court may issue a mandamus if it deemed proper and fit and may direct the Union of India to bring it into force in J&K.

However, Advocate General DC Raina, who represented the government, submitted that the PSA was in consonance with the Constitution, adding that the amendment to Article 22 of the Constitution would be automatically extended to J&K after the abrogation of Article 370.

As argued in the petition and further reiterated by the petitioner before the bench today, it has been said that every resident of J&K, who was detained after August 5, may be granted token compensation of Rs 5 lakh per detenue so that the rule of law finds restoration in the state of J&K.