Jammu & Kashmir High Court seeks govt reply to plea challenging detention of Senior Advocate

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Friday (October 11) gave the Jammu and Kashmir government four weeks to respond to the plea challenging the preventive detention of Senior Advocate NA Ronga [Nazir Ahmad Ronga v. UT of J&K].

Justice Puneet Gupta has listed the matter for hearing next on November 20.

Ronga was detained in July 2024 at Srinagar under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978.

At the time of his arrest, his family was not informed that he was being detained under the Public Safety Act, which is a preventive detention law applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.

The arrival of a police team as well as the detention of Ronga was captured on CCTV.

It later came to light that a detention order under the Public Safety Act had been passed by the District Magistrate, Srinagar on July 10 to prevent Ronga from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance and security of the State.

Following his detention, a habeas corpus petition was filed seeking his release and compensation of ₹60 lakhs on the ground that he was illegally detained and tortured.

The plea, filed through advocate BA Khan, alleged that the authorities did not follow the mandate of law enshrined by the Supreme Court's ruling in the DK Basu case when they arrested Ronga.

Earlier, on September 11, a Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Dhar had given three weeks for the government to file its counter, before listing the case on October 11.

However, according to the latest order in the matter, the government has now been given four more weeks to file its response.

Ronga has served as President of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Srinagar several times.

In 2023, he was one of several leaders detained under the Public Safety Act a day before Article 370 (special status to Jammu and Kashmir) of the Constitution was abrogated, in a bid to prevent protests against the move.

The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act is a preventive detention law under which a person can be jailed for six months without a trial. It is similar to the National Security Act used by other State governments for preventive detention. After the abrogation of Article 370, the constitutional validity of some provisions of PSA was challenged before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Advocate Tuba Manzoor, advocate appeared for Ronga. Additional Advocate General Satinder Singh Kala appeared for the Jammu and Kashmir government.

[Read Order]