'Non-application of mind:' High court quashes PSA detention of Waqar Bhatti after 8 months of imprisonment

October 19, 2025 by News Desk

After nearly eight months of detention, the Public Safety Act of prominent social activist Waqar H. Bhatti was quashed by the court.

His wife, Roohi Bhatti, confirmed to The Kashmiriyat that her husband, who is an activist from Rajouri district of Jammu Kashmir, has been released.

“Waqar was detained in February and it has been a long and painful wait for our family. We are relieved that the court finally restored his liberty,” she said, adding that he had been booked under multiple cases for what she described as “his outspoken views

The Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, in a judgement, quashed the detention of Mohd Waqar alias Waqar H Bhatti of Rajouri, who had been held under the Public Safety Act (PSA), calling the order “arbitrary” and passed “without application of mind.”

Justice M.A. Chowdhary, while delivering the judgment on October 9, 2025, of which a copy is available with The Kashmiriyat, observed that the authorities had violated constitutional safeguards guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution by failing to inform the detenue of his rights and by not supplying the complete record on which the detention was based.

Waqar Bhatti, a 40-year-old activist and resident of Saaj village in Tehsil Thanamandi, had been detained under Order No. DMR/PSA/01 of 2025 issued on February 21, 2025, by the District Magistrate of Rajouri.

His detention lasted for nearly eight months before the High Court set it aside.

The detention had been challenged through a habeas corpus petition filed by his brother, Ghulam Mustafa Bhatti, before the High Court at Jammu.

The District Magistrate had cited several FIRs registered between 2018 and 2025 and a police DDR entry as grounds for preventive detention, alleging that Bhatti posed a threat to public order.

The court, however, found serious procedural and constitutional violations in the detention process. It noted that the District Magistrate had not communicated to Bhatti that he had a right to make a representation before the detaining authority itself.

“The detaining authority has not communicated to the detenue that he can make representation to the detaining authority against the impugned detention order for its revocation,” the court said, adding that this omission alone was enough to invalidate the order.

The judgment also pointed out that Bhatti had not been supplied with the entire material that formed the basis of his detention, nor was it explained to him in the language he understood.

The court noted that while the respondents claimed the detenue had received 84 leaves of documents, no affidavit from the executing officer was produced to confirm that the documents were properly explained.

The court observed that “for not supplying the detenue whole of the record, which was based to pass the order, amounted to denial of fair opportunity to represent against the same.”

Justice Chowdhary further criticized the authorities for relying on the police dossier without independent scrutiny, stating that the “grounds of detention are almost photocopy of the police dossier.”

He cited Supreme Court rulings that such replication reflects non-application of mind by the detaining authority.

The court also found that the authorities had suppressed the fact that Bhatti had already been acquitted in one of the FIRs used as a basis for detention—FIR No. 303/2018 under Section 124-A RPC registered at Police Station Bahu Fort, Jammu.

In strong words defending the right to personal liberty, the judge wrote that “personal liberty is one of the most cherished freedoms” and that courts must remain strict “in ensuring observance with the requirements of the law, and even where a requirement of the law is breached in the slightest measure, the court has not hesitated to strike down the order of detention.”

After nearly eight months of detention, Waqar Bhatti was released from the District Jail Kathua following the court’s order. His wife, Roohi Bhatti, confirmed to *The Kashmiriyat* that her husband, who is an activist, has been released. “Waqar was detained in February and it has been a long and painful wait for our family. We are relieved that the court finally restored his liberty,” she said, adding that he had been booked under multiple cases for what she described as “his outspoken view.”

Concluding that the detaining authority had acted mechanically and in violation of constitutional safeguards, the court held that the detention order was “unsustainable and liable to be quashed.”

It directed that Mohd Waqar Bhatti be released from preventive custody forthwith, if not required in any other case.