Jammu & Kashmir High Court warns government over failure to release detenues despite court orders

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh recently warned officials of the Jammu and Kashmir government to ensure that persons under preventive detention are released promptly if their detention orders are quashed by courts [Muneeb Rasool Shenwari vs. R. K. Goyal and Ors]..Justice Rahul Bharti sounded the warning while dealing with a case where a man continued to remain detained for over two months even after the order to detain him was quashed by the High Court in December 2023. .The judge noted that owing to the government officials' lapse, the detenue had suffered around 79 days of illegal detention. After summoning the concerned district magistrate and a police official, the Court emphasised that such instances should not re-occur. ."This court has made known to the two offices the serious concern of this court about loss of 79 days of his life by the petitioner by remaining under preventive custody without any legal basis ... This court hopes that such like scenario does not repeat again and whenever the preventive detention of a detenue gets quashed, the Government of UT of Jammu and Kashmir acts with reasonable dispatch to ensure that the detenue person is released from the custody without unwarranted loss of time," the Court's order stated..The Court was dealing with a contempt petition filed by the detained man through his mother against the Jammu and Kashmir government. The Court was informed that the officials were not releasing the detenue from prison, despite a December 2023 judgment which held that his detention was illegal. In an earlier hearing, the Court was also informed that the detenue was lodged in a prison outside Jammu and Kashmir, in Uttar Pradesh. "This is a serious matter which calls for due indulgence of this Court on urgent note," the Court had observed in a March 18 order, by which it summoned the officials concerned for an explanation. .The detenue was eventually released on March 25 following the Court's order. However, before closing the contempt case, the Court also granted the detenue liberty to avail appropriate legal remedies against the erring government officials for the illegal detention he suffered. "The court let the petitioner restored to his personal liberty yesterday in terms of the order dated 18.03.2024 and therefore this contempt petition is closed without prejudice to the right of the petitioner, if any, to avail appropriate legal remedy against the defaulting/erring official or authority for illegal detention suffered by him post quashment of his detention order," the March 26 order of the Court said. .Advocate Mohammad Rafiq Bhat appeared on behalf of the petitioner.Senior Additional Advocate General Mohsin Qadri, Deputy Advocate General Rais ud Din Ganie, and Government Advocate Jahangir Ahmad Dar represented the respondent-authorities. .[Read Orders]