Preventive detention requires timely and credible evidence; undue delay and failure to address representation render detention illegal.

JUDGMENT :

01. Heard learned counsel for the parties.

02. Perused the pleadings and the record therewith. Also perused the detention record produced from the end of the respondents.

03. The petitioner-Shafatullah Shah, age 23 years, acting through his father-Muzaffar Ahmad Shah, has come forward to maintain this writ petition filed on 6^th of June, 2024 thereby seeking writ jurisdiction of this court under article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus for restoration of his personal liberty curtailed by virtue of his preventive detention under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988 (PIT NDPS Act 1988 in short).

04. The petitioner came to be in conflict with law when he along with two others namely Parvaiz Ahmad Khan and Nasir Ahmad Siraj came to be booked in an FIR No. 19/2023 by the Police Station Bomai for alleged commission of offences punishable under sections 8/22-29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act 1985). The petitioner and one of two co-accused persons are alleged to have been intercepted by a Police Party on patrol duty in a government vehicle when upon reaching near Shiva Crossing, there was a notice of suspicious movement of two persons from Dangerpora to Shiva and who, upon being apprehended, came to be Parvaiz Ahmad and the petitioner upon whose personal search narcotic drugs in the form of codeine bottles, 20 in number, were recovered from their personal possession, nine each. The registration of the said FIR, thus, led to the arrest of the petitioner and his two co-accused and upon investigation, a final police report/ challan came to be presented on 10^th of October, 2023 before the court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sopore.

05. Vide an order dated 19^th of December, 2023, the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sopore came to charge the accused persons under section 8/22(B) of the NDPS Act, 1985 and deleting the charge of section 29.

06. On 21^st of December, 2023, the petitioner came to be granted bail by the trial court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sopore.

07. It is after the aforesaid development that the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Sopore came forward with the dossier prepared against the petitioner and submitted to the respondent No.2-Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir vide letter No. Pros/PIT-NDPS/2024/2287-89 dated 15^th of January, 2024 narrating therein that the petitioner is a member of an organized drug trafficking gang working in Sopore area involved in procuring, transporting and sale of psychotropic substances and the petitioner is clandestinely carrying out activities in narcotic drugs for a long period working in an organized and well-planned manner.

08. In this regard, the involvement of the petitioner in FIR No. 19/2023 of Police Station, Bomai was highlighted with an additional reference that the criminal case against the petitioner related to the said FIR has been presented before the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sopore for judicial determination and the petitioner came to be enlarged on bail.

09. This dossier remained un-responded by the respondent No.2-Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir in the sense that vide letter No. Div.Com/RA-Detn/674/7401990/24 dated 13^th of February, 2024 by the Revenue Attorney in the office of the respondent No.2-Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir addressed to Tehsildar, Sopore, a report was sought regarding present activities of the petitioner and his involvement in drug related activities.

10. This very communication dated 13^th of February, 2024 itself hinted out that on the basis of the dossier so placed by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Sopore, the respondent No.2-Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir was not nursing any satisfaction that anything latest in terms of acts of omission or commission at the end of the petitioner was there in the dossier so as to warrant his preventive detention under PIT NDPS Act, 1988, o