The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the preventive detention of a Shopian man under the Public Safety Act (PSA), holding that the grounds cited by authorities were vague and insufficient to allow him to effectively challenge his detention.
A single bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal, while hearing a petition filed by Mashooq Ahmad Shah through his counsel, ordered his immediate release, unless he was required in connection with another case. The judgment was delivered on Saturday, October 3.
Shah, a resident of Shahlatoo in Shopian, was detained on December 23, 2025, following a detention order issued by the Shopian district magistrate on the basis of a police dossier. He was subsequently lodged in Jammu’s Kot Bhalwal jail.
According to the dossier cited in the court proceedings, intelligence reports had indicated that Shah had a “tendency towards anti-national activities” in his locality and other parts of Shopian. Police also alleged that he had “hatred against the state and government” and had attempted to “radicalise and instigate young people towards anti-national activities”.
The dossier further described Shah as a “perpetual concern for the security agencies” and alleged that he could be used “as a conduit by terrorist outfits to build underground networks”.
Shah challenged the detention, arguing that the allegations were false, vague and unsupported by concrete evidence. The High Court found deficiencies in the grounds cited for his detention.
The court noted that authorities had alleged Shah was in contact with people and associations associated with “extremist leanings”, but had not identified those individuals or organisations. Similarly, allegations that he had attempted to establish contact with young people did not specify who those youths were or when the alleged attempts occurred.
Justice Oswal observed that the allegations were “false, incorrect, vague and non-existent” and said they did not provide sufficient material for a detainee to make an effective representation against the detention. The court held that this violated the constitutional safeguards guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution.
The judgment also examined procedural safeguards under Section 13 of the J&K Public Safety Act, which requires detention grounds to be communicated to detainees within the prescribed period and provides an opportunity to challenge the detention.
The court consequently quashed the December 23, 2025 detention order and directed authorities to release Shah from preventive custody immediately, subject to his not being wanted in any other case.
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