PSA And The Long Arm Of The Law

After constitutional challenges to the effective abrogation of Article 370, the focus in our courts is now on a slew of habeas corpus petitions challenging detentions in Jammu and Kashmir.

- Harsh Bora

The latest one, filed by Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK leader Vaiko in the Supreme Court, seeks to produce in court Farooq Abdullah, the octogenarian former chief minister of J&K.

Preventive detention laws, which permit detention of persons who threaten public order or the security of the State or are likely to commit an offence, have been on the statute books from the inception of India’s constitutional democracy. They also have a history of misuse by the ruling establishment against its political opponents. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (JKPSA), the state’s own preventive detention law, has been deployed repeatedly since its enactment in 1978, and has been the instrument of choice in the recent spate of arrests of prominent political persons.