The high-powered committee, constituted by Jammu and Kashmir government, has observed that the release of persons detained under Public Safety Act (PSA) was not in terms of guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for decongesting jails amid COVID-19 pandemic.
The panel headed by executive chairman State Legal Services Authority Justice Rajesh Bindal has made this observation after Chief Justice of J&K High Court referred a representation to it for release of PSA detainees, sources told DH.
The panel, also comprising J&K Principal Secretary Home Shaleen Kabra and Director General of Prisons VK Singh, has categorically maintained that the representation for release of PSA detainees cannot be considered, even as it has urged the authorities to re-consider these cases on merits given the prevailing situation.
On February 5, the Ministry of Home Affairs had informed the Parliament that 389 people were in detention under the PSA in J&K. These include former Chief Minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti and six other top politicians. However, in the past two weeks, the government has released 47 detainees booked under the PSA after abrogation of Article 370 by the Central government on August 5 last year.
States like Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have also released prisoners held for petty crimes on parole or furlough in the wake of the pandemic. Maharashtra released 11,000 such prisoners last week, fearing that COVID-19 would spread among jail inmates.
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