Vague grounds: HC quashes journalist Majid Hyderi’s detention under PSA

Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has quashed political commentator Majid Hyderi’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). In September 2023, Hyderi, who worked as a journalist, was arrested in Srinagar and booked under the stringent PSA, following which he was lodged in the Kot Balwal Jail, Jammu.

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In the judgment, Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul, who struck down the PSA order, stated, “It may be appropriate to mention here that in the case in hand, perusal of the grounds of detention reveals that the grounds are vague and ambiguous, and do not refer to any date, month or year of the activities, which have been attributed to detenu.”

“Detention in preventive custody on the basis of such vague and ambiguous grounds of detention cannot be justified. It may not be out of place to mention here that preventive detention is largely precautionary and is based on suspicion,” the court said, adding that the detaining authority, in the grounds of detention, has made reference to one FIR which relates to defamation matter.

“…the activities alleged in the aforementioned FIR, per se, do not attract or entail the provisions of the J&K Public Safety Act,” the court said.

In grounds of detention, it was alleged that detenu has “under the cover of journalism” been advocating “idea of separatism and secessionist ideology through the electronic media, tweets and social media posts and trying to advance the radical ideology.”

Petitioner Hyderi, however, placed on record various documents which suggest contrary to what has been alleged against detenu, the court said. “If we treat detenu like peace loving citizens in such a harsh way by bashing and thrashing them and placing them under preventive detention, then we will lose ‘peace’ and ‘peace loving citizens’,” the court said.

The court also observed that “detaining authority appears to have not been made aware of the above mentioned facts/information.” “If this information would have been brought to the notice of detaining authority, things would have been different and the detenu would not have been languishing in jail but would have been, at this moment, serving the nation,” it said.