Referring to Sheikh's earlier PSA order being quashed in April 2024, the court said the "judicial development was a material circumstance which necessarily required consideration while assessing the present detention". (Image: https://jkhighcourt.nic.in/)Preventive detention cannot become a substitute for ordinary criminal law, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has said as it quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) invoked against a Srinagar resident.“Preventive detention cannot become a substitute for ordinary criminal law. Nor can the extraordinary power of preventive detention be exercised merely because the authorities entertain a general apprehension regarding a person’s antecedents,” Justice M A Chowdhary said in his judgment on September 17. “There must be material from which a rational prognosis of future prejudicial conduct can be made”.Zubair Altaf Sheikh, a resident of Soura, Srinagar, was booked under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA) in September last year, primarily on the back of an FIR registered against him in 2022. While he had been bailed out by the court in the case, the same case was used to book him under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for the first time in 2022. The detention, too, had been quashed by the court.While counsel for the respondents argued that the PSA detention order is not “founded merely upon the FIR” registered in 2022 and has been based on a fresh dossier containing more materials and “fresh inputs received through discrete sources”, Justice Chowdhary said the “court is unable to accept the submission”.“An antecedent can undoubtedly be referred to for a limited purpose, but where the antecedent is relied upon as a circumstance supporting the conclusion that the detenue continues to pose a threat to the ‘security of the State’, it must have a live and proximate nexus with the present necessity of detention,” the court said.Those discreet police records, it said, correspond to the time period when the petitioner was working in Delhi as a store manager with Blinkit.“Another significant circumstance is that the detenue was working as a Store Manager at Gurugram, Delhi. The assertion that he was in Delhi in connection with his employment has remained un-rebutted. Petitioner has placed on record documents in support of his assertion of being in Gurugram NCR Delhi, having received wages for the period regarding which discreet reports were made foundational basis to pass impugned detention order,” the court said.Story continues below this adWhile employment at another place cannot, by itself, negate allegations of prejudicial activity, “it was nevertheless a relevant circumstance which required due consideration by the detaining authority, while assessing whether there existed a continuing and immediate threat warranting preventive detention,” the court said.Referring to Sheikh’s earlier PSA order being quashed in April 2024, the court said the “judicial development was a material circumstance which necessarily required consideration while assessing the present detention”.“The detaining authority could not mechanically revive the earlier narrative without demonstrating how the subsequent material overcame the effect of the passage of time and established a fresh and continuing threat,” the judgment read.Referring to the various Supreme Court judgments, Justice Chowdhary said that the “underlying principle in cases of preventive detention is the existence of a live and proximate link” between the grounds of detention and the confirmed purpose of detention and an unexplained delay can snap such link and render the subjective satisfaction vulnerable.Story continues below this ad“A mere description of a person by a particular label, without particulars of the acts which constitute the alleged prejudicial conduct, cannot by itself furnish an adequate basis for preventive detention. The constitutional requirement is that the grounds must be sufficiently specific to enable the detenue to understand and effectively meet the allegations,” it said. “In the present case, the FIR of 2022, viewed against the subsequent quashing of the earlier PSA detention order, the passage of nearly three years, the unrebutted assertion regarding the detenue’s employment at Gurugram, and the absence of specific contemporaneous acts attributable to him, cannot by itself furnish the requisite live link”.Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. Expertise and Experience Two Decades of Frontline Reporting: Bashaarat has spent 20 years documenting the evolution of Kashmir, from high-intensity conflict and political shifts to socio-economic development. Award-Winning Investigative Journalism: He is a recipient of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2012). This honor was bestowed for his reporting on the Pathribal fake encounter, a series of stories that highlighted his ability to handle sensitive human rights and security issues with investigative rigor. Specialized Beats: His authoritative coverage spans: Political Transitions: Tracking the shift from statehood to Union Territory, electoral dynamics, and the pulse of local governance. Security & Conflict: Providing nuanced reporting on counter-insurgency, civil liberties, and the impact of the conflict on the civilian population. Development: Documenting the infrastructure, healthcare, and educational landscape within the Valley. Academic Background: He holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Kashmir, providing him with a localized academic and professional foundation that is rare in regional reporting. ... Read More Tags:Srinagar