MOHAMMAD RAFI NAJAR Vs. UT OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was detained pursuant to Order No. 06/DMA/PSA/DET/2024 dtd. 1/4/2024, issued by the District Magistrate, Anantnag (respondent No. 2), in exercise of powers conferred under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). Aggrieved by the said order of detention, the appellant challenged the same by filing HCP No. 132/2024 titled "Mohd. Rafi Najar v. Union Territory of J&K and others". However, the challenge did not succeed, as the writ petition preferred by the appellant came to be dismissed by the learned writ Court vide judgment dtd. 22/8/2025 (hereinafter referred to as the "impugned judgment").

(2.) Aggrieved of the impugned judgment, the appellant has challenged the same on the grounds that the learned Writ Court has failed to appreciate that the procedural safeguards envisaged under the Constitution of India, as well as those mandated under the Act, were not complied with by respondent No. 2. Appellant submits that the detention order is vitiated by the absence of a proximate nexus. There exists no subsisting link between the stale incidents alleged and the current necessity for preventive detention. It is further urged that the detention order is founded on vague, indefinite and non-specific allegations, thereby depriving the appellant of his valuable right to make an effective representation against the detention. The appellant has also contended that the learned writ court has failed to consider the vital aspect that the appellant had earlier been detained under the Public Safety Act vide Detention Order No. 70/DMA/PSA/DET/2022 dtd. 8/12/2022, which came to be revoked on 27/1/2023, i.e., after about two months. It is submitted that in the absence of any fresh or compelling material, the appellant could not have been detained again after more than a year, vide detention order dtd. 1/4/2024, on the basis of stale, non- existent and vague allegations.

(3.) Learned counsel for the appellant has reiterated the submissions as recorded above by this Court.