JUDGMENT

Sanjeev Kumar, J. - Impugned in this petition is an order of detention issued by the District Magistrate, Kishtwar (for short "detaining authority") bearing No. 202/DM/K of 2019 dated 31.05.2019 whereby the petitioner has been detained under Section 8(2) of the J&K Public Safety Act,1978 ( for short "PSA").

2. Before adverting to the grounds of challenge urged in this petition, it would be necessary to take note of the factual antecedents which have led to the passing of the detention order by the detaining authority. As is gatherable from the record, pursuant to the dossier of the activities of the petitioner supplied by Sr. Superintendent of Police Kishtwar vide his No.Conf/Detention/05/7651-54/C dated 30.05.2019, the detaining authority, after taking note of the activities the petitioner had been indulging in, arrived at the satisfaction that the substantive law had failed to desist the petitioner from carrying out his activities which are prejudicial to the security of the State and, therefore, it was necessary to keep the petitioner under preventive detention.

3. In the grounds of detention, the detaining authority noted that during the year 2018, the petitioner had established contact with a Pakistan based person on whatsapp No.8492822652 and demanded one pistol with rounds for waging war against the lawfully established Government. That apart, a case FIR No. 222/2017 under Sections 307/353 RPC stood registered against the petitioner on 03.11.2017. The allegation against the petitioner in the aforesaid FIR is that he, while being on his Motor Cycle bearing No.JK17/1955, was intercepted at a traffic naka near Police Station Kishtwar and was asked to produce the documents of the Motor Cycle, but the petitioner, instead of producing the same, assaulted upon the naka party with a Toka with criminal intention to murder the cops. Similarly, on 07.12.2018, reliable information was received at Police Station Kishtwar that the petitioner was working as an enemy agent for ISI in District Kishtwar and was supplying photographs of the security forces deployed in the District Kishtwar to ISI of Pakistan. On the basis of this report, FIR No. 307/2018 dated 07.12.2018 under Section 3 EAO was also registered in Police Station Kishtwar. There is another FIR i.e FIR No. 150/2016 registered under Sections 341/323/354/504 RPC in Police Station Kishtwar on the basis of a complaint received from a girl student of 10th class, who was allegedly harassed by the petitioner. On the basis of the material and the activities indulged in by the petitioner, the detaining authority appears to have formulated his satisfaction that with a view to prevent the petitioner from indulging in the activities prejudicial to the security of the State, it is necessary to put him under preventive detention. The order of detention has been approved by the Government.

4. As is apparent from the record, the matter was referred to the Advisory Board for its opinion and pursuant to the opinion rendered by the Advisory Board, impugned order of detention was confirmed by the Government initially for a period of six months vide Government Order No. Home/PB-V/957 of 2019 dated 04.07.2019 which has further been extended for a period of six months vide Government Order No. Home/PBV/210 of 2019 dated 30.11.2019 which period would expire somewhere in May 2020.

5. The impugned order of detention is assailed by the petitioner primarily on the following grounds:

(i) That the detaining authority cannot fix the time limit for detention as the same lies in the domain of the Government who has to take such decision on the basis of the opinion rendered by the Advisory Board;

(ii) That the order impugned suffers from total non-application of mind as the detaining authority has not shown any compelling reason as to why the impugned order of detention was required to be passed despite the fact that the petitioner was already in jail in connection with FIR No. 307/2018; and

(iii) Th