Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association president Mia Abdul Qayoom is expected to be released in August first week.
The government has told the Supreme Court that it will not extend his detention beyond August 6, the day when the detention order expires, the Live Law reported.
Solicitor-General (SG) Tushar Mehta told the court that the government had no plans to extend the detention of the Bar president beyond August 6. The three-member bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ajay Rastogi, and Aniruddha Bose was hearing a plea by the lawyers’ association challenging the J&K High Court order that had dismissed Qayoom’s Habeas Corpus petition.
He was detained in August last year along with hundreds of others as part of measures to crush protests when Kashmir’s special constitutional status under Article 370 was abrogated by the Indian government on August 5, 2019.
However, counsels of the petitions, Dushyant Dave and Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, appealed to the court that Qayoom be released immediately, arguing that his detention was “unconstitutional”.
Dave also said that his detention was defying the judgements of the Supreme Court.
The bench then asked the SG whether the government was going to release Qayoom on conditional bail before August 6 when the detention order would expire.
According to Live Law, the matter is now listed on 29 July 29.
