Supreme Court To Hear Plea Against Omar Abdullah's PSA Detention On March 5

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear on March 5 a plea filed by Sara Abdullah Pilot challenging the detention of her brother and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Pilot in the apex court. Pilot has approached the top court challenging her brother's detention under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, saying the order was "manifestly illegal" and there was no question of him being a "threat to the maintenance of public order".

The PSA against Omar states his ability to convince electorates to vote in huge numbers even during the peak of militancy and poll boycott calls by separatists and militants.

The grounds of detention against Omar, who was chief minister of the state from 2009-14, state that on the eve of reorganisation of the state he had made attempts to provoke general masses against the revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A.

The grounds also mention his comments on social networking sites to instigate common people against the decisions on Articles 370 and 35-A which had the potential of disturbing public order.

However, the police have neither mentioned any of Omar’s social media posts in the dossier nor in the order for grounds of his detention.

“To the people of Kashmir, we don’t know what is in store for us.......stay safe and above all please stay calm,” was the last few tweets of Omar before he was taken to Hari Nivas for preventive detention.

Omar Abdullah, who has been junior foreign minister and commerce minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led Cabinet in 2000, was served with a three-page dossier in which he was alleged to have made statements in the past which were “subversive” in nature.