PREM NATH BAZAZ Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a rule obtained by the detenu Prem Nath Bazaz against the Union of india to show cause why the order of detention be not set aside and the petitioner set at liberty.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petition, the petitioner is an old worker in the cause o freedom movement of Kashmir with which he has been connected" for twenty-five years. He was elected the President of the S. D. Yuvak Sabha in 1931 and he was a non-official member of the Grievances Enquiry Commission set up by the State government under the chairmanship of Sir Bertrand Glancy, In collaboration with sheikh Abdullah he started an Urdu weekly "the Hamdard" which, subsequently became a daily and the petitioner continued to edit it up to 1947 when he was arrested. He was a founder member of the executive of the Kashmir National conference, but he severed his connection with it in 1941 because of some ideological differences. He has since been the Chairman of the Kashmir Socialist Party and founded the kashmir Kisan Mazdoor Conference and is the author of various books amongst others of 'inside Kashmir' published in 1940 and 'history of Struggle for Freedom in Kashmir' published in 1954. He has stated in his affidavit that he believes in democracy and secularism and has tried to propagate both these in the State and ever since the Kashmir dispute arose he has been advocating its solution by peaceful methods. He was arrested in 1947 by the "kashmir Government and was in detention till 1950 when he was extern-ed from the State and has since been residing at Delhi and been editing an English Monthly "the Voice of Kashmir" which was being published from Delhi since November 1954.

(3.) ON 8th September 1955 the petitioner was arrested under the orders of the central Government under Section 3 of the Preventive Detention Act, with the petition he has attached a copy of the order served on him and a copy of the grounds which are dated 10th September 1955.