HC quashes PSA against AAP MLA
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Monday quashed the Public Safety Act (PSA) against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Mehraj Malik, a party spokesperson said.
Malik, who is the AAP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit president, was detained under the stringent PSA on September 8 last year for allegedly disturbing public order and was subsequently lodged in the Kathua jail.
Outspoken Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Doda (East) earned the rare distinction of becoming the first sitting MLA who was detained under the PSA, an administrative law that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases.
On September 24, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court, challenging his detention and seeking Rs 5 crore as compensation.
On February 23, the high court had reserved its order in the case.
“The court pronounced its judgment in Mehraj Malik’s case. His PSA has been quashed, and it bolsters our faith in the judiciary,” AAP spokesperson Appu Singh Slathia told reporters after the hearing. Slathia was part of Malik’s legal team.
Malik was detained after he launched a hate campaign against the Deputy Commissioner Doda Harvinder Singh.
The verbal brawl between the two started after the Deputy Commissioner turned down one of his recommendations over the issue of shifting a health sub-centre.
Several clips of Mehraj Malik abusing the Deputy Commissioner, Doda, went viral on various social media platforms, following which an FIR was registered against AAP MLA.
The district authorities had claimed Malik was trying to influence the administration and resorting to theatrics to allow the sub centre to function in a building built by one of his supporters on State land and pay him the monthly rent.
In the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, Malik won the Doda seat by over 4,500 votes, securing AAP’s first-ever victory in the Union territory.
