Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response On Plea Against Shifting Of Prisoners From J&K To Other States

In a plea alleging that certain detenues detained under the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 had been shifted from local district and central jails within Jammu and Kashmir to prisons in other States of the country, the Supreme Court directed the Union and the State of Jammu and Kashmir to place their counter affidavits on record. 

The petition was filed by Raja Begum, a resident of Srinagar's Parimpora, who said that her son Arif Ahmad Sheikh was shifted to the Central Jail in Varanasi. The matter was listed before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala. Today, the petitioner said–

"He (detenue) has been released but the family had to come down and take him. These are daily wage workers. They took immense pain. Some sort of communication must be established. My instructions are that they are not being allowed to communicate. They belong to severely impoverished backgrounds. For them to keep travelling to visit their family members is impossible."

Earlier, the petitioner had argued that as soon as detenues were moved to different states, they lost all their rights. Further, family members of such detenues knew nothing of their whereabouts, once they had been moved. It was also submitted that since the detenues in question had been arrested under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, which was only restricted to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, they could not be moved to other prisons across the country.

CJI DY Chandrachud remarked–

"The original proviso to Section 10 of the Public Safety Act, 1978 stated that the detenues who are permanent residents of the State shall not be sent outside of the State. Then the Public Safety (Amendment) Act of 2010 deleted that."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union, said–

"We will take instructions. These are the issues of genuine national security. It may not be as simple as just communication between two people."

The court directed the counter affidavits to be placed on record. Matter is now listed after two weeks.

Case Title: Raja Begum And Ors. v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 906/2022

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