The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Jammu and Kashmir Administration on a petition filed by Congress leader and former Union Minister Saifuddin Soz’s wife challenging his detention since nullification of Article 370 in August last year.
In her petition she has alleged that the house arrest is “unlawful” and her husband was informed on 5 August that he was under house arrest but was never told about the grounds of his detention.The primary ground of challenge is violation of Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India, which provides that whenever an order is made for preventive detention, the authority shall immediately inform the detenue of the reasons for such order.The two-judge Bench stated that though the reply by the Government of J&K will be filed in two weeks, the matter will be heard in the second week of July.
The notice was issued by a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra after a submission by P. Chidambaram and Abhishek Manu Singhvi that the octogenarian leader had been kept in detention for over 10 months, without being told about the grounds. Both of them appeared on behalf of Soz’s wife and noted that the arrest had been made without a single document,said PTI report.
