MOHD KABIR Vs. UNION TERRITORY OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the instant petition, quashment of order No. DMR/INDEX/13 of 2023 dtd. 15/6/2023, issued by District Magistrate, Rajouri-respondent No.3 (for brevity 'detaining authority') is sought. In terms of the aforesaid order, Mohd Kabir son of Feroz Din resident of Nerojal Tehsil Thanamandi District Rajouri , (for short 'detenu') has been placed under preventive detention and lodged in District Jail, Dhangri, in order to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial and detrimental to the maintenance of public order.

(2.) The petitioner has contended that he has been detained in an illegal and arbitrary manner without following the principles of natural justice. It is submitted that the detention of the petitioner is based on ill will and act of vengeance. It is further contended that the offences as alleged in the FIRs, even if taken on their face value, do not in any manner constitute sufficient material for issuance of a preventive detention order and there is non-application of mind on the part of the detaining authority while issuing the impugned detention order and that whole of the material that formed basis of the grounds of detention has not been furnished to the petitioner which prevented him from making an effective representation against his detention.

(3.) The respondents, in their counter affidavit, have disputed the averments made in the petition and insisted that the activities of detenue have posed a serious threat to the maintenance of public order in whole of the district in general and Reasi Town in particular that the petitioner is involved in various criminal cases; that whole of the material was handed over to the detenue and the same has been read over and explained to him; that the petitioner was informed about his right to make a representation against the detention and that the impugned detention order has been passed strictly in accordance with law occupying the field. In support of their stand taken in the counter affidavit, the respondents have also produced the detention record.