New Delhi, May 16 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred a plea to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which alleges that more than 20 individuals detained under the public safety law have been relocated from prisons in the union territory to jails in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala stated that since the high court is already dealing with pleas challenging the 2018 amendments made in the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act of 1978, it would be appropriate to hear the present petition there.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the union territory, informed the court that family members are allowed to meet the detainees held in jails in other states, emphasizing that it has been an accepted practice.
In transferring the plea filed by Raja Begum and other relatives of the detainees, the bench directed the Chief Justice of the high court to expedite the hearing of the petition and granted senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, the liberty to mention it before the high court.
“It is needless to mention here that the high court will deal with the petition as per the orders of this court,” the bench added.
Previously, on November 4 of last year, the top court had sought responses from the Centre, the Jammu and Kashmir government, and others regarding the plea, which alleged that several persons detained under the public safety law had been shifted from union territory prisons to jails in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Gonsalves, representing the relatives of the detainees, argued that they had been transferred from jails in Jammu and Kashmir, depriving their relatives of the opportunity to meet them. He asserted that individuals detained under the local law should not be moved out of the union territory since the statute is applicable only within the territory.
The detainees are currently under preventive detention under the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978.
The plea was filed by a woman named Raja Begum and three others. One of the detainees, Arif Ahmad Sheikh, son of Begum and a resident of Parimpora in Srinagar, was shifted to the Central Jail in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He was detained under the PSA on April 7, 2022.
