NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Tihar jail authorities to make sure all necessary summer clothes are provided to Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom, who is detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai also issued notice to the central government and the Jammu and Kashmir government on a plea filed by Qayoom challenging the high court’s order upholding his detention.
Qayoom was detained on the intervening night of August 4 and 5 last year, ahead of the government’s decision to revoke Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
During the hearing, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Qayoom, submitted that he was brought to Tihar jail from the union territory, so he has only winter clothing.
Agreeing with Dave, Justice Kaul said, “Jail authorities to look into the issue and appropriate clothing is permitted along with daily essentials.” His plea asserts that by relying on his ideology, the high court “embarked on a constitutionally barred exercise of sanctioning State induced thought policing, which violates the right to privacy and dignity of the Petitioner”. “The tenets of the Indian Constitution bar the state from acting as a thought police and endows a person with the right to privacy as a facet of the right to life and liberty, recognized by the judgment of nine judges of this Hon’ble Court in KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017) 10 SCC 1,” the petition notes.
Probe against editor stayed
The Supreme Court stayed the investigation in three FIRs registered by West Bengal police against OpIndia editor Nupur J Sharma, her husband Vaibhav Sharma, CEO/founder Rahul Roushan and OpIndia’s Hindi editor Ajeet Bharti. The FIRs which were filed by the West Bengal Police.
No coercive action against journalist
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed any coercive action against journalist and anchor Amish Devgan in multiple FIRs lodged in several states over his alleged defamatory statements against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. It also issued notices to those who have lodged criminal cases against the journalist.