Srinagar, July 11, KDC: The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has quashed the preventive detention of a Srinagar resident under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act, holding that the detaining authority acted with “total non application of mind” by seeking to prevent the petitioner from committing offences under a law that defines none.
Justice Sanjay Dhar passed the judgment while allowing a petition filed by Bilal Ahmad Langoo, who had challenged a detention order issued by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, in July 2025 under the PITNDPS Act.
The authorities had justified Langoo’s detention by alleging that he was an active member of a drug trafficking network and had continued to engage in the illicit trade after securing bail in a 2023 case registered at Police Station Rajbagh under Sections 8 and 21 of the NDPS Act, involving the alleged recovery of five grams of heroin.
Langoo challenged the detention, contending that the allegations against him were vague, stale and unsupported by any material, thereby depriving him of an effective opportunity to make a representation against the detention order.
Examining the detention record, the High Court found no material to substantiate the petitioner’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking after his release on bail. The court noted that the authorities had failed to specify any dates, places or incidents of his alleged activities or place on record the field reports on which the detention order was purportedly based.
The court, however, found a more fundamental flaw in the detention order itself.
Justice Dhar observed that the detaining authority had recorded that Langoo was being detained to prevent him from committing offences under the PITNDPS Act, even though the legislation does not define any criminal offence.
“Provisions of PITNDPS Act do not define any offence and the said legislation has been designed only to prevent individuals from engaging in illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through preventive detention,” the court observed.
The court further held that recording such a reason for detention “shows total non application on the part of the detaining authority.”
Holding that the detention order was vitiated both by the absence of supporting material and the detaining authority’s fundamental misunderstanding of the scope of the PITNDPS Act, the High Court quashed the detention order and directed the immediate release of Bilal Ahmad Langoo, provided he is not required in connection with any other criminal case. (KDC)
