- The Jammu & Kashmir administration issued an order on September 16, 2019 notifying that Srinagar MP and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had been detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).
- He was detained hours before the Supreme Court was due to hear Rajya Sabha Member Vaiko’s habeus corpus petition, seeking the J&K government to produce him in court and release him from detention.
About Public Saftey Act (PSA)
- The Public Saftey Act (PSA) was introduced by Sheikh Abdullah (Farooq Abdullah’s father) in 1978. At that time the objective was to prevent timber smuggling, and keep the smugglers in prison.
- PSA is a preventive detention law that allows the State government to detain a person up to two years without a trial.
- It is similar to the National Security Act (NSA), but this was enacted two years before the NSA came into being.
- In police custody, a person has to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of detention. But the Public Saftey Act allows the State to hold a person without producing them in court.
- According to Section 13(2) of the act, the detaining authority need not even inform the detained individual as to the reason for the action, if it decides that it goes against public interest.
- However, within four weeks of passing the detention order, the government has to refer the case to an Advisory Board. This Advisory Board will have to give its recommendations within eight weeks of the order. If the Board thinks that there is cause for preventive detention, the government can hold the person up to two years.
