SC Issued Notice to UT of J&K to File its Responses Against Plea’s Claims That Detainees Are Being Shifted to Prisons in Other States

Supreme Court LAW INSIDER

Aastha Thakur

Published on: 05 November 2022 at 20:42 IST

Against the petition, Supreme Court issues notice to the Union Territory of J&K&L on Friday. The plea states that some detainees held pursuant to the terms of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, had been transferred from local district and central jails within Jammu and Kashmir to prisons in other States of the nation.

The bench comprising CJI UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi heard the matter.

Raja Begum, a Parimpora resident of Srinagar, filed the case since she has no idea where her son Arif Ahmad Sheikh is now that he has been sent to the Central Jail in Varanasi. Senior Advocate Dr. Colin Gonsalves, the petitioner’s lawyer, claims that when detenues are shifted to other states, they immediately lose all of their rights. Additionally, once such detenues were relocated, their families had no idea where they were.

Dr. Gonsalves initially argued that the detainees in question could not be moved to other jails throughout the nation since their arrests were made in accordance with the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, which was only applicable to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

He informed the court that the detenues were being moved to jails in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh when the bench inquired as to where they were being sent.

He further added–

There are roughly 22 detenues, we’re appearing for four of them. The detenues are a very tiny fraction of the prison population. All their rights are cut off“.

Hence, the court after listening the matter issued notice to the Union of India and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

The case is currently scheduled for hearing on November 25, 2022.

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