Ideology: For Mian Qayoom to decide, Govt to accept: HC

JAMMU: Turning down the quash of detention plea of Kashmir Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom, a Division Bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court advised him to make a plea to the government and left it for the authorities to decide the matter.
The Court gave Mian no relief to return to the Bench if his plea of shunning ideology, made at all, is turned down by the government. The government counsel, Advocate General in this case, had mentioned about the secessionist ideology of the High Court Bar Association president and has said that a change can be accepted if “the person concerned declares and establishes by conduct and expression that he has shunned the ideology”. The Court asked Mian to “take advantage of the stand” taken by Advocate General. The petition was disposed of.
The divisional bench comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul observed that the Advocate General has submitted that the “activities attributed to and alleged against the detenue herein, reflected in the FIRs, are not such acts as, if once committed, would be treated as acts done in the past, and finished.”
The Court said that the Advocate General also submitted that the “FIRs and the grounds of detention depict and relate to the secessionist ideology of the detenue, entertained, developed, nourished and nurtured by him over decades.”
The Court further observed that Advocate General has submitted “the ideology nourished and nurtured by the detainee cannot be confined or limited to time, qualify it to be called stale or fresh, unless of course, the person concerned declares and establishes by conduct and expression that he has shunned the ideology.”
The bench in its order observed that in the light of the argument taken by the Advocate General, “we leave it to the detenue to decide whether he would wish to take advantage of the stand of the Advocate General and make a representation to the concerned authorities to abide by it.”
“Simultaneously, we also leave it to the discretion of the government and the concerned competent authority to take a decision in terms of relevant provisions of JK PSA on any such representation, if made by the detenue.” “It is made clear that an adverse order on any such application, if made, shall not entail any legal proceeding, whatsoever,” the Court observed.