Plea to release Soz under detention for over 9 months

NEW DELHI, May 29: The wife of senior Congress leader and former union minister Prof. Saifuddin Soz (82) on Friday moved the Supreme Court, challenging the detention of her husband for more than nine months since August 5, 2019, without assigning any reason.
Octogenarian Soz, former Union Minister for Environment, was put under the house arrest with many other Kashmiri leaders including former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mahbooba Muft and other prominent leaders of Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.
Soz’s wife Mumtazunnisa Soz in her habeas corpus petition has claimed that her husband was informed about his detention on the morning of August 5, when the Presidential order abrogating Article 370 was issued. However, she says all efforts by Soz to get a copy of the detention order were frustrated.
"All efforts by him to obtain a copy of the detention order(s) have been of no avail due to the illegal, arbitrary exercise of powers by the Union Territory of J&K. His detention is wholly contrary and perverse to the constitutional safeguards laid down under Article 21 and 22, as well as the law on preventive detention", says the habeas corpus petition.
The petition has also contended that Soz "has no criminal antecedents and past", thus no cogent reasons for his detention and his age should be considered for his unnecessary detention affecting his health.