 Early Times Report
Jammu, July 14: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the preventive detention of Adnan Rasool Ganie under the PIT-NDPS Act, holding that an unexplained delay of more than four months between the preparation of the police dossier and the passing of the detention order rendered the action illegal.
Justice Rahul Bharti ordered the immediate release of the petitioner from the concerned jail and directed that his personal liberty be restored forthwith.
Ganie had been under preventive detention since July 24, 2025, pursuant to an order passed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, on July 21, 2025, under Section 3 of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.
He approached the High Court through a habeas corpus petition filed on November 12, 2025, seeking quashing of the detention order and his release from custody.
The court noted that the grounds of detention referred to the petitioner’s alleged involvement in FIR No. 58/2022 registered at Police Station Parimpora. On the basis of this solitary case, he was projected as being likely to continue his alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities.
The assessment was contained in a dossier prepared by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, on March 4, 2025. However, the detention order was passed by the Divisional Commissioner only on July 21, 2025.
Justice Bharti observed that no explanation had been offered for the delay of more than four months in acting upon the police dossier.
“If the dossier was of 04.03.2025, then there was no reason for the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, to defer his interest and indulgence for a period of more than four months,” the court observed.
The High Court held that the unexplained gap destroyed the immediacy and proximity required for invoking preventive detention and made the very basis of the action a “mockery” of the PIT-NDPS Act.
The court also noted that only a short period of the petitioner’s one-year detention remained. Despite this, the petitioner continued to place his faith in the constitutional court for adjudication of his challenge instead of allowing the matter to become infructuous with the passage of time.
Accepting the challenge, the High Court declared the detention order dated July 21, 2025, along with the subsequent confirmation order passed by the J&K Government, illegal and quashed both.
The Superintendent of the concerned jail was directed to release the petitioner forthwith.
Advocate Tawheed Ahmad Sofi appeared for the petitioner, while no one appeared for the respondents. (JNF) |