The Supreme Court on Friday granted six weeks’ time to the Jammu and Kashmir government to submit data on Pakistani nationals detained under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, after officials revealed that relevant records were lost during floods in the Union Territory.
A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing a long-pending plea filed by the late Bhim Singh, senior advocate and founder of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party. The petition concerns the continued detention of Pakistani nationals under preventive detention laws and seeks their release and deportation.
During the hearing, the court was informed that floods had destroyed the official data pertaining to these detainees. Acknowledging the difficulty, the bench granted the state government additional time to reconstruct or recover the information and posted the matter for further hearing on July 25.
The court has earlier expressed concern over the plight of Pakistani citizens who, even after completing their sentences in Indian jails, remain incarcerated due to the absence of a repatriation mechanism. It had urged the government to develop a framework ensuring that such foreign nationals are not held beyond their lawful custody period, particularly when Pakistan refuses to acknowledge their citizenship or accept their return.
