Former CMs’ Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were booked under the stringent PSA barely a few hours before their detention was to end on February 6.
New Delhi| Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s sister Sara Abdullah Pilot on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the detention of the National Conference leader under the PSA. Polit has sought immediate release of her brother.
The Jammu and Kashmir admin has cited National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s ability to “convince his electorate to vote in huge numbers” as one of the grounds for invoking the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against the former chief minister.
Sara Abdullah Pilot has said her brother’s detention is a grave violation of his constitutional rights including freedom of speech and is part of a “consistent and concerted effort to muzzle all political rivals”.
The court agreed for a hearing after senior advocate Kapil Sibal sought an urgent hearing of the plea before Justice Ramana’s bench.
Sibal told the bench that they have filed a habeas corpus petition questioning the detention of Abdullah under the PSA and the matter should be tried this week.
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In her petition, Pilot said that disagreement with policies of the Central Government is a constitutional right of a citizen in a democracy (especially to a member of opposition). She added that accusations against Abdullah are not backed by any material, whether in the form of social media posts or otherwise.
Similar orders of detention had been issued over the last seven months “in a wholly mechanical manner” to detain others, Sara Abdullah Pilot says in her petition.
“The order conflates ‘Governmental policy’ with the ‘Indian State’, suggesting that any opposition to the former constitutes a threat to the latter. This is wholly antithetical to a democratic polity and undermines the Indian Constitution,” the petition says.
To the contrary, there exists strong evidence in the form of tweets and public statements by Abdullah prior to his detention pointing towards his exemplary conduct wherein he has repeatedly requested to people to maintain peace, the plea before the top court read.
Violence will only play in to the hands of those who do not have the best interests of the state in mind. This wasn’t the India J&K acceded to but I’m not quite ready to give up hope yet. Let calm heads prevail. God be with you all.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 4, 2019
The dossier prepared by the police says the former chief minister is using politics as a cover for planning activities against the union government.
It says “despite the fact that the subject has been a mainstream politician, he has been planning his activities against the Union of India under the guise of politics. And while enjoying the support of gullible masses, he has been successful in execution of such activities”.
(Inputs from The Indian Express)
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