PSA draft ordinance: Govt yet to respond to Guv’s objections

PSA draft ordinance: Govt yet to respond to Guv’s objections

By: SYED BASHARAT

SRINAGAR, Dec 31: The state government is yet to respond to objections raised by Raj Bhawan over ‘age’ clause mentioned in draft ordinance of the Public Safety Act (PSA).

Although the law department has forwarded its opinion regarding the objections raised by the Governor N N Vohra, state home department has not taken any final decision in this regard, reliable sources revealed.

In its draft ordinance the government had mentioned that PSA was not applicable to the state subjects below the age of 18 while as non state subjects below 18 could be arrested under this Act.

Going by the right to equality, the Governor had felt this clause was likely to contravene the constitution, sources said adding that Raj Bhawan had therefore, returned the draft ordinance asking the government to come clear on the age issue.

Sources in the government said that the law department had opined that there was nothing new in the objections raised by the governor’s office as the issue was already well defined in the constitution. “There is a reasonable classification permissible under constitution which clears all doubts regarding the age clause proposed by the government,” a top officer in the law department said.

However, the home department is yet to take any final decision in this regard, sources disclosed. “The file is yet to be sent to the chief minister for his remarks. Although we have received the legal opinion on the objections raised by the Raj Bhawan but we have not decided anything in this regard so far,” said a well placed officer in the home department.

The speed with which the state government had mooted out the draft ordinance regarding PSA, a senior lawyer in the High Court said that the action taken was just for the public consumption.

“The government could have waited for the Legislative Assembly which was likely to meet in February-March 2012, so that the revised PSA could have been debated in the house. But it acted swiftly to divert the attention of general public,” the senior lawyer added.

It may be recalled that since the legislature was not in session, the state Government had forwarded the file regarding the amendment to PSA through Law Department to the Raj Bhawan for issuance of ordinance.

However, the Raj Bhawan observed that the different treatment by the state government to local and non local youth under the controversial age clause of the proposed PSA will be a violation of the right to equality guaranteed under the constitution of the country.

On October 28, the coalition government led by the National Conference had approved an ordinance to remove the stringent clauses in PSA after human rights orgnaisation world wide criticized the applicability of this law in Jammu and Kashmir.
Among other recommendations the government had proposed that a minor (under 18 years of age) would no longer be detained under PSA.

The detention period under PSA was proposed to be reduced from the existing one year to three months in case of public disorder and from otherwise two years to six months in a case involving security of the State. A provision for revision and the extension of detention period from one year and two years was proposed in the new PSA.

Besides, a detainee under PSA to be communicated in his/her own language the grounds of detention it was proposed that all the formalities for slapping PSA on an accused shall be completed within six weeks instead of eight weeks as was given under the existing provisions of the Act.

Besides, Chairman of Public Safety Advisory Board can be appointed for two terms only.

Officials claimed that it is for the first time that major amendments have been proposed in the Act. This was for the 6th time that the law is to be amended.

A committee framed by the Law Department had approved the amendments and sent them to the state Home Department - the concerned implementing administrative department on the PSA - for approval.
The government nod for the amendment to this controversial law followed mounting pressure from international human rights orgnaisation, Amnesty International, which had asked the state government to revoke this law.

In its report the Amnesty had termed the Act as “lawless law.” “Hundreds of people are detained under the PSA in J&K, many of them political activists and youth suspected of throwing stones at security forces. Instead of charging and trying persons suspected of committing offences in a fair trial in a court of law, the authorities continue to circumvent the rule of law by resorting to the PSA,” the Amnesty report said. The High Court Bar Association also pleads that over 35,000 persons have been detained under PSA since 1989.

[Kashmir Times]