Closes Contempt Plea Against DC, SSP Baramulla
Srinagar, Mar 30: While expressing hope that a detainee is released from the custody without unwarranted loss of time when court quashes detention order, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has closed contempt proceedings against Deputy Commissioner and SSP Baramulla even as it made known to them the “serious concern” about loss of 79 days of detainee’s life by remaining under preventive custody without any legal basis.
In compliance with the court’s direction in a contempt petition filed by a detainee—Muneeb Rasool Shenwari, Minga Sherpa, District Magistrate Baramulla, and Amod Ashok, SSP Baramulla appeared before the court of Justice Rahul Bharti.
“This court has made known to the two offices the serious concern of this court about loss of 79 days of his life by the petitioner by remaining under preventive custody without any legal basis only to earn his release upon intervention of this court when the petitioner came to file the present contempt petition apprising this court that despite quashment of his preventive detention in terms of judgement dated 30.12.2023 ……the petitioner has not earned his release from the custody w.e.f. the date of pronouncement of the judgement reading his detention illegal,” the court said, adding, “This court hopes that such like scenario does not repeat again and whenever the preventive detention of a detenue gets quashed, the Government of UT of Jammu and Kashmir acts with reasonable dispatch to ensure that the detenue person is released from the custody without unwarranted loss of time.”
Subsequently, the court closed the contempt petition “without prejudice to the right of the petitioner, if any, to avail appropriate legal remedy against the defaulting/erring official or authority for illegal detention suffered by him post quashment of his detention order.”
