Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has now been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and his residence has been turned into a subsidiary jail.
The J&K leader has been under house arrest since the Centre scrapped Article 370 that gave special status to the state. It is now bifurcated into two union territories, J&K and Ladakh.
News of the detention order emerged on Monday ahead of the top court taking up a habeas corpus (meaning, produce the body) petition that sought his production in the top court.
The Act allows the government to detain a person for a minimum of six months and up to two years without a trial. Interestingly, the Act was first put into action during the tenure of Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah’s father.
Abdullah’s residence has been declared as a subsidiary jail and he will continue to stay in his house. He, however, has no restrictions on meeting relatives and friends. The veteran leader has been under house arrest since August 5, 2019.
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Recently, National Conference MPs were allowed to visit Farooq and his son and former CM Omar Abdullah but with restrictions that they cannot interact with media following the meeting.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer issued notice to the Centre and the state, and fixed Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK leader Vaiko’s plea for hearing on September 30.
Vaiko, who is a close friend of Abdullah for the past four decades, has contended that constitutional rights conferred on the National Conference leader had been deprived on account of “illegal detention without any authority of law”.