Bhim Singh files plea in SC on PSA

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 13

Days after the Central government slapped the Public Safety Act (PSA) against two former Chief Ministers — Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, chief patron of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party Bhim Singh has filed a writ petition, challenging the PSA in the Supreme Court.

Bhim Singh, who is also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, filed a writ petition in the apex court (Dairy No. 5950, titled as Prof Bhim Singh Vs Union of India & Others).

According to the writ petition filed by Bhim Singh, more than 600 political activists have been detained for six months under the ‘draconian and dead law’, which had lost its existence the day the President abrogated Article 35A from Chapter-III of the Constitution.The petition has prayed before the SC to declare the J&K Public Safety Act, 1978, an invalid law, which was enacted by the Jammu and Kashmir legislature in 1978 by virtue of the exclusive jurisdiction of J&K under Article 35A.

It has asked the SC to direct the Union of India and the respondents to grant appropriate compensation to all detenues who have completed six or more months in illegal detention in J&K or outside J&K.