Calling the allegations against him “vague, ambiguous and lacking in material particulars”, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) against former Kashmir Bar Association president and its ad-hoc chairman advocate Nazir Ahmad Ronga.
The court ordered Ronga’s immediate release if he is “not required in any other case”. Ronga was detained by the police and subsequently booked under the Public Safety Act in July 2024.
“It is clear that the allegations levelled against the petitioner in the grounds of detention are vague, ambiguous and lacking in material particulars, on the basis of which it was not possible for the petitioner to make an effective and suitable representation against the impugned order of detention,” Justice Sanjay Dhar said in his judgement while quashing the PSA against Ronga. “On this ground also, the impugned order of detention is not sustainable in law.”
The court said that the constitutional right available under Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India stands infringed in this case. “Besides this, there has been total non-application of mind on the part of detaining authority in passing the impugned order of detention, as the allegations made in the grounds of detention, particularly those relating to his recent activities, are vague and ambiguous,” the order said. “The same are not even supported by any material in the form of intelligence report, etc, to lend some sort of credence to these allegations. The subjective satisfaction arrived at by the detaining authority, in these circumstances, has become a casualty.”
Ronga was arrested on July 11 during a midnight raid by the police at his Srinagar residence. He was later booked under the PSA and sent to a Jammu jail.
Ronga has been the president of the High Court Bar Association several times and its chairman since 2020, when the government prevented the association from conducting annual elections. The last elections were conducted in 2018 and were due in September 2019 but couldn’t be held because of the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and the subsequent curfew.
When the Bar Association announced its elections in 2020, the government said the Bar’s constitution, which termed Kashmir as a disputed region, was not in consonance with the Constitution of India.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
