Decode Politics: What is PSA, the law under which first J&K sitting MLA held

* How is the PSA slapped on an individual?

The power to issue detention orders under the PSA lies with the District Magistrate, who is also the Deputy Commissioner of the district concerned. Police first prepare a case file, known as a dossier – a form of chargesheet – against the accused and submit it to the District Magistrate. The dossier explains why a person needs to be detained under the PSA. Based on the dossier, the officer decides if the order to detain the accused must be issued or not.

In rare instances, mostly concerning ordinary residents and not political leaders, District Magistrates return dossiers, rejecting police recommendations.

* Why did the law come into force?

Three years after his accord with the Indira Gandhi government in 1975, Sheikh Abdullah, also the founder of the National Conference, brought in the PSA with the stated aim being to “keep timber smugglers out of circulation”.

However, the PSA’s enforcement has been marred by allegations of misuse by successive governments to detain political opponents without charging them.

Incidentally, it is one of the J&K laws retained by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre following the abrogation of Article 370 and scrapping of the state’s special status in August 2019.

* How have governments ‘misused’ the law, and who were some of the leaders detained under the PSA?

After militancy erupted in J&K in the late 1980s, the state government as well as governors used the PSA frequently to keep separatists and militant “sympathisers” behind bars.

One of the most egregious examples is of Masarat Alam Bhat, the chairman of the separatist Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League. Alam was booked 37 times under the PSA – with the Act invoked every time his detention period under the previous one got over – and remained in jail from 2010 to 2015, apart from several other detention periods. He is currently in jail in connection with a money laundering case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Following the 2008 street protests in the Valley, triggered over the Amarnath Yatra land issue, state governments led by the NC, and later by the Peoples Democratic Party, used the legislation to detain stone-pelters and protesters.

In the security crackdown accompanying the abrogation of Article 370, three former J&K CMs – Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti – were detained under the PSA.

* Has the law ever been amended, and what was changed?

After widespread criticism of the law, the Omar Abdullah-led NC government amended the law in 2011. The amendment raised the minimum age of those who could be detained under the PSA from 16 to 18 years. It also reduced the detention period from a year to three months in cases related to public disorder, and from two years to six months in cases where the security of the State was involved.

However, the law has a provision to revise the detention period and extend it to one year and two years in cases of public disorder and security, respectively.

* What is the legal route an accused can take?

A person booked under the PSA can file a review petition before the Home Department. If the plea is rejected, the accused can move the High Court and file a habeas corpus plea.

Over the last three decades, a majority of the PSA cases have been quashed by the High Court.