The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has quashed the detention of Kashmir-based journalist Sajad Ahmad Dar (Sajad Gul), saying being a critic of the government is not the grounds to detain a person. The court said it found the allegations against him vague and general (without any specific instance).

The high court also slammed the authorities, terming such detentions ‘an abuse of the preventive detention law’. Sajad Gul has been under detention under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act since January 16, 2022, on charges of promoting enmity through his social media posts and statements.

In its judgment, the court observed, “Such a tendency on the part of the detaining authority to detain the critics of the policies or commissions/ omissions of the Government machinery, in our considered opinion, is an abuse of the preventive law.”

Further, the division bench comprising Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice MA Chowdhary noted that the grounds of detention nowhere mention that Gul had uploaded any false story or that his reporting was not based on true facts