Amid Covid scare, entry to J&K High Court regulated
Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar/jammu, March 16
Amid coronavirus scare, the J&K High Court today restricted entry to its premises in Srinagar and Jammu.
Detention of Bar gen secy under PSA quashed
- The J&K High Court on Monday quashed the detention of Bar general secretary Mohammad Ashraf Bhat under the Public Safety Act and ordered his release from the jail. “Perusal of grounds of detention unmasks grounds of detention are vague and ambiguous and do not refer to any date, month or year of the activities, which have been attributed to detenue,” a single Bench of Justice Tashi Rabstan said in the judgment, while quashing the detention order of Bar general secretary who was detained on September 26, 2019 and lodged at Srinagar Central Jail.
The measure comes even as the Supreme Court has already restricted entry inside the court premises with hearing of only urgent matters to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.
As the measure was announced today by the High Court, scores of people could been seen today morning waiting outside the main gate of the High Court as the security forces deployed at the gate regulated the entry to the court.
“The entry to the court has been restricted. Those whose cases were listed today are being allowed,” a lawyer at the High Court told The Tribune.
On the other hand, the High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, today voiced its “serious concern” over the spread of Covid-19 across the globe and demanded immediate release of all the Kashmiri political leaders lodged in various jails across India, including its detained president Mian Qayoom, who has been lodged at Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
“As per the health condition of the president, who is in his advanced age surviving on a single kidney and suffering from various chronic ailments, which include diabetes, hypertension, severe nerve damage, prostate and 60 per cent blockage in one of the arteries of heart, he is more prone to the deadly virus,” the Bar said after the meeting of its executive committee members, while demanding his release and scores of other political prisoners lodged in various jails.
“The Bar Association under the circumstances feels worried about the health of its ailing president Mian Abdul Qayoom, who has been under detention since August 4, 2019, and is presently in Tihar Jail,” it said.
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