Jammu And Kashmir High Court: Jammu and Kashmir: High court quashes PSA detention of Shopian man for ‘showing anti-national tendencies’ | India News
SRINAGAR: Jammu & Kashmir high court quashed the preventive detention of a man booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) on charges of showing a disposition towards anti-national activities, terming the allegations against him “prima facie vague”.The detention of Mashooq Ahmad Shah of Shahlatoo was in violation of constitutional guarantees envisaged under Article 22(5) of the Constitution, Justice Rajnesh Oswal said in his order Saturday, directing his immediate release if he was not wanted in any other case.The Shopian district magistrate on Dec 23, 2025, ordered the detention of Shah based on a police dossier that cited intelligence reports and said that he had “shown a tendency towards anti-national activities in his locality and other parts of the district … and hatred against the state and govt in order to radicalise and instigate the youth towards anti-national activities”.The dossier further mentioned that Shah “remains a perpetual concern for the security agencies” and “could potentially be used as a conduit by terrorist outfits to build underground networks”. His conduct indicated “he has no respect for judicial proceedings and the law of the land”, it added.
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Shah was lodged in Jammu’s Kot Bhalwal jail. He moved the HC, arguing that the grounds of detention were false, incorrect, vague and non-existent. The allegations “are illusory and without any material basis”, he said.Justice Oswal concurred with the petitioner that the charges against him were vague and “bereft of necessary particulars”. The court said the state failed to identify the persons and associations with extremist leanings with which it alleged Shah maintained contact, nor did it specify who the youths were with whom the petitioner attempted to establish contact and when.
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