Srinagar, Apr 14 (KNS): Government of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday repealed Public Safety Act (PSA) detention orders of 41 persons who were lodged in UP jails. According to officials, the move was aimed to decongest jails to contain spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Kashmir News Service (KNS), official of J&K administration said that J&K UT administration on Tuesday morning revoked PSA detention orders of 41 persons who were languishing in different jails of Uttar Pradesh.
In wake of swelling number of Covid-19 cases across country, the Supreme Court on March 24 ordered all states and Union Territories to set up high-level panels which would consider releasing all convicts who have been jailed for up to seven years on parole to decongest jails in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.
The bench suggested that under-trials awaiting trial for offences entailing maximum sentence of seven years also be extended a similar benefit. The under-trial review committee must meet every week, it said.
On the second week of April, J&K authorities released at least sixty-five prisoners who were arrested under Public Safety Act (PSA) with an aim to decongest jails across the Union Territory in wake of Covid-19 pandemic.
Director General Prisons J&K V K Singh in his report apprised the division bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court that as on April 7, pursuant to deliberations held by high powered committee, 22 Public Safety Act detenues, 32 under-trials, 9 under-trials falling under section 107, 109, 151 of the CrPC have been released and sanction for parole has been granted to other 19 prisoners.
From past three weeks, authorities in J&K have so far revoked 140 detention orders who were lodged in several jails in and outside UT.
It is pertinent to mention that authorities detained more than 4500 hundred person in Jammu and Kashmir on August 4 and subsequent days when New Delhi abrogated special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and downgraded the erstwhile state into two Union Territories (UT’s) – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. (KNS)