The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high courts have quashed the detention of trainee journalist Sajad Gul under the Public Safety Act, (PSA) on Nov 9.

As per the high court statement, “While going through the records, the court finds an observation of detaining authority that the detenu had been a negative critic of the policies of the government of Jammu and Kashmir and that his tweets used to provoke people against the government.”

“This cannot be said to be a ground to rely upon that a true and factual media report can provoke people against the working of the government, that too without any specific instance as to how his tweets had caused any problem, much less a public order problem with the government,” added the high court.

A division bench of the J&K high court comprising chief justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice M A Chowdhary observed that the detention under PSA was based on ‘vague grounds’ and any work of the journalist was not dubbed harmful.

Earlier, a plea against the detention of Gul was rejected by the court. Later, a division bench approved the plea and directed the authorities to release the Kashmiri journalist.

What led to Gul’s detention?

Gul, a trainee reporter with the privately owned news website The Kashmir Walla, from his home in the northern Bandipora district of Kashmir and pursuing his master’s degree in convergent journalism, was detained by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Jan 5, 2022.

The detaining authority formulated the grounds of detention showing that Gul used social media as a tool to instigate people against government establishments by making statements on social media which caused mischief and enmity; that he had made/tweeted controversial statements and was less reporting about the welfare of the union territory, rather promoting enmity; that on his Twitter account bearing ID @SajadGul_, he had natural tendency to support anti-national/ anti-social desires, so as to cherish his dream; that his statements/ stories are readily available on the social media platforms, among them Facebook.

Gul was detained on the grounds of posting a video showing women protesting the killing of a local militant commander.

In a statement released in 2022, Jammu and Kashmir police reportedly said that Gul was arrested for allegedly provoking people to “resort to violence and disturb public peace” by posting an “objectionable” video on social media and accused him of spreading disinformation “under the garb of a journalist.”

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