High Court quashes PSA detention based on old fir, Calls it “stale and unjustified”

November 3, 2025 by News Desk

Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has set aside a preventive detention order issued under the Public Safety Act (PSA), holding that it was based on a five-year-old FIR and therefore lacked a “live and proximate link” between the alleged offence and the detention.

Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi, while hearing a petition filed by Sajad Ahmad Bhat, quashed the detention order dated April 30, 2025, passed by the District Magistrate.

The order was based on an FIR registered in 2020 under the Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a case in which the petitioner had already been granted bail.

The petitioner argued that the detention order was passed mechanically within two days of receiving the police dossier, without supplying the supporting documents, thereby violating his right to make an effective representation.

The Court agreed, noting that a detention cannot be justified when the alleged grounds are remote or outdated.

“The impugned order, issued in 2025 for a case registered in 2020, is based on stale grounds. This indicates the absence of a proximate link between the alleged acts and any threat to the security of the State,” the judgment stated.

The Court further observed that preventive detention laws are meant to address immediate threats and cannot be invoked as substitutes for ordinary criminal law. If authorities fail to show that existing legal provisions were insufficient to prevent the alleged activities, a PSA detention cannot be sustained, the Court said.

Holding that the order violated both statutory and constitutional safeguards, Justice Kazmi directed that the detenue be released immediately.