JUDGMENT :

1. By virtue of Order No. DIVCOM-“K”/21/2023 dated 04.03.2023 (for short ‘impugned order’) passed by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir - respondent No.2, the detenue namely Tawqeer Bashir Magray S/O Late Bashir Ahmad Magray R/O Nowshara Boniyar Baramulla, has been ordered to be detained under Section -3 of Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act 1988 (for short ‘the Act’). Aggrieved of the said detention order, detenue, through his wife, has filed the present petition seeking quashment of the same on the grounds taken in the petition in hand.

2. Case set up by the petitioner is that the detaining authority has not followed the constitutional and statutory procedural safeguards while passing the detention order of the detenue; that that order of detention has been passed in breach of the mandate of law as declared by the Supreme Court of India as also the other High Courts of the country; that the detention order passed by Divisional Commissioner, in terms of the Central Act, is not competent to detain a person whereas the competent officer is Secretary to Government or the officer of the rank of Joint Secretary especially empowered in t