J&K: Amnesty Denied Permission to Release Report on PSA

Amnesty International India, on Wednesday, was denied permission by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to hold a press conference. A report titled Tyranny of a ‘lawless law’: Detention without charge or trial under the J&K Public Safety Act was scheduled to be released during the event.

The report’s briefing, now published on Amnesty’s website, has called for the repeal of the draconian Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) after analysing case studies of 210 detainees who had been detained under the PSA between 2012 and 2018.

According to Nazia Erum, who manages media and advocacy for Amnesty International India, the reason cited was the “law and order situation,” reported HuffPost India.

Enacted in 1978, PSA allows for administrative detention of up to two years “in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State” and for administrative detention of up to one year where “any person is acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order”.

“The text of the PSA continues to violate several of India’s obligations under international human rights law, including respecting detainees’ fair trial rights to be promptly informed of the reasons for their arrest, to judicial review of the detention, to be represented by counsel of their choice, and to remedy for abuses,” says the human rights group in the report.

The report added that the information regarding the detainees has been collected through RTI applications and communications to government departments and lawyers.

In 2011 and 2012, Amnesty International had published a report titled ‘A Lawless Law’ and ‘Still a Lawless Law’ respectively. The reports documented the various ways in which the use of the PSA violated international human rights law.