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| SC directs Union of India to file affidavit within two weeks | | Deportation of PoK prisoners | | New Delhi | Dec 5
A DIVISION Bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising Justice A K Mathur and Justice Markandey Katju has directed the Union of India to file affidavit within two weeks as to under what provision of law or statutory mandate, Zamir Ahmed Khan and Zafar Ali, both from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir have been treated as security prisoners and refused to deport them.
The Apex Court also directed the Union Government to file a detailed reply as to why they were not deported after the sentence against them exhausted and there were no case pending against them.
Observing that protocol signed between India and Pakistan can’t change the existing mandate of the Constitution, the SC said Article 21 of the Constitution of India is applicable to every person and when procedure prescribed by any law is violated, the Court shall not hesitate to intervene.
The SC further directed the Union of India to file a detailed report regarding the cases of conviction of other two prisoners namely Abdul Rahim son of Abdul Majid Khan resident of Wazia Stand Road Karihi District Dera Pakistan and Nazir Ahmed son of Hazi Lal Khan of Kaushar Niazi Colony North Naimabad Karachi Pakistan, who have been allegedly, as claimed by the Union of India, sentenced to life imprisonment and en detained in Tihar Jail.
In a handout issued by the State Legal Aid Committee, Prof Bhim Singh, who is also the executive chairman of the Committee, submitted in the SC that there was no legal terminology in the jurisprudence of a civil prisoner in the present context and both Zamir Ahmed Khan and Zafar Ali were provided Consular Access and Pakistan High Commission had issued travel documents for both of them. He told the Court that neither the Union of India nor any other agency can detain a person in India when he is not required for any trial adding that there was nothing new that these prisoners were sent from Pakistan with guns to Jammu and Kashmir. He maintained they have already completed the sentence and more so the Jammu and Kashmir Government in its letter addressed to the Union Home Ministry has clearly stated that they are not required in the state any more.
Prof Singh also urged the SC to direct the Union of India and Jammu and Kashmir Government to order release and deportation of all the 33 detunes mentioned in three different writ petitions filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Legal Aid Committee, of which he is also the Chairman.
On this, the Apex Court directed Prof Singh to file a charter identifying the names of the detunes in the writ petitions who have been deported and those who have not been deported after the court directions and also advised him to contact the Embassy of Tajikistan in connection the deportation of one Abdul Qadir resident of Tajikistan, who had come to Jammu and Kashmir for ‘jehad’ against India. The next hearing of the case has been fixed on January 16,2008.
Prof Singh was also assisted by Advocate P V Yogeswaran in the Apex Court. |
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