SC to hear plea over Omar post Holi break
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear the petition of Sara Abdullah Pilot, sister of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, against his detention after Holi break. Omar has been detained under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA).
The matter was listed before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra today but could not be taken up as Justice Mishra was hearing a Constitution bench matter.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Sara Abdullah Pilot, mentioned the matter before the bench, following which Justice Mishra told him that the matter will not be taken up today.
Sibal requested the court to take up the matter as soon as possible as it is a habeas corpus case. The court said that it will hear the matter post the Holi break.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration, in an affidavit on Monday, told the apex court that Abdullah has been “very vocal critic” of abrogation of Article 370 and his presence would pose an “imminent threat to public order” and objected to the petition filed by Sara.
The plea filed by Sara Abdullah Pilot, Omar’s sister and the wife of Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, said the order of detention is manifestly illegal and there is no question of him being a “threat to the maintenance of public order”.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration had on February 5 invoked the stringent Public Safety Act against the former CM Omar Abdullah and other top leaders in the erstwhile state.
“The matter pertains to liberty,” a bench led by Justice Mishra had observed on Monday, rejecting Attorney General Venugopal’s opposition to the top court hearing the habeas corpus petition in the case.