HC bars PSA detention of three practising advocates in Batamaloo FIR
23/09/2026
Srinagar, Sep 22: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has directed the authorities not to detain three practising advocates under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in connection with FIR No. 27/2026 registered at Police Station Batamaloo, subject to the condition that they are not involved in any other case or crime.
Justice Rajesh Sekhri passed the order on a petition filed by advocates Irfan Akbar Malla, Umar Mushtaq Mir and Jahangir Ahmad Bhat under Article 226 of the Constitution. The petitioners were represented by Advocate SaleemGul.
The petition arose from an incident connected with proceedings in a case under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act before the 4th Additional Munsiff, Srinagar. The petitioners stated that while proceeding towards the District Legal Services Authority office in the District Court Complex, Srinagar, for mediation proceedings, an altercation took place with the opposite party in the matrimonial dispute.
According to the petitioners, one of them was assaulted and a selectively edited video of the incident was subsequently uploaded on social media. FIR No. 27/2026 was thereafter registered at Police Station Batamaloo under Sections 136 and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The petitioners apprehended detention under the PSA and contended that preventive detention should not be used as a substitute for proceedings under ordinary criminal law.
The High Court had earlier, on March 31, restrained the respondents from detaining the petitioners in connection with the FIR without prior permission of the Court. The petitioners had also been directed to furnish an undertaking that they would not take the law into their own hands or repeat a similar incident.
The Court subsequently noted that neither the respondents had filed their response nor had the petitioners furnished the undertaking contemplated in the earlier order.
Considering the limited controversy before it, the High Court disposed of the petition with a direction to the respondents to refrain from detaining the three advocates under the PSA on the basis of FIR No. 27/2026, provided they are not involved in any other case or crime apart from the said FIR.
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