Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday (March 18) asked Jammu and Kashmir administration to take instruction on whether it is planning to release former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has been detained under Public Safety Act.
While hearing a Habeas Corpus plea for Omar Abdullah filed by his sister Sarah Abdullah Pilot, the apex court ordered the counsel appearing for Jammu and Kashmir administration to take instruction and inform it.The SC will now hear the matter next week.
Sara Pilot has approached the top court challenging her brother’s detention under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, saying the order was “manifestly illegal” and there was no question of him being a “threat to the maintenance of public order”.
Sara Pilot has also urged the top court to quash the February 5 order which put the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister in detention under the PSA and said that Abdullah should be produced before the court.Sara Pilot has also said that exercise of powers by the authorities under the CrPC to detain individuals, including political leaders, was “clearly mala fide to ensure that the opposition to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution is silenced”.
“There has been a grave violation of Articles 14, 21 and 22 of the Constitution,” the plea said, adding, “similar orders of detention have been issued by the Respondents (authorities of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir) over the last seven months in a wholly mechanical manner to other detainees, which suggest that there has been a consistent and concerted effort to muzzle all political rivals”.
Omar Abdullah has been kept under detention ever since the Centre abrogated Article 370 that gave special status to erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.