J&K Congress leader Soz’s wife moves SC against his house arrest

In her plea filed though advocate Sunil Fernandes, Mumtazunnisa Soz said she “has reasonable grounds for believing” that her husband “has been placed under house arrest in an unlawful and manifestly illegal exercise of powers...and in total disregard of the procedure established by law”.

Jammu and Kashmir Congress leader Saifuddin Soz’s wife has approached the Supreme Court against his house arrest following the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.

In her plea filed though advocate Sunil Fernandes, Mumtazunnisa Soz said she “has reasonable grounds for believing” that her husband “has been placed under house arrest in an unlawful and manifestly illegal exercise of powers…and in total disregard of the procedure established by law”.

The plea claimed that the “copy of the impugned order(s) of detention was not provided to the detenu within the statutory period, and even after that, for a period of ten months”.

The “grounds for arrest have not been furnished to the detenu even till date, and the detenu has been kept under detention for an indefinite period”, she contended.

This amounted to “depriving the detenu of his fundamental right of making effective representation guaranteed” under the Constitution and the laws, the petitioner said.

She pointed out that the SC had “in a plethora of judgments…held that the non-supply of material forming basis of the grounds of detention vitiates the order of detention making is unconstitutional and liable to be quashed”.

She contended that Soz “has not indulged in any activity that may be given the colour of an offence under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 and for this reason the order(s) of detention are malafide and should be quashed”.