Was Enroute to Harvard: Shah Faesal Moves Court Against Detention

A plea was moved in the Delhi HC alleging that the ex-IAS officer was illegally detained at the New Delhi airport.

A plea was moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday, 19 August, alleging that former IAS officer Shah Faesal was illegally detained at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on 14 August and taken back to Srinagar, where he was put under house arrest.

The matter came up for hearing before a Bench comprising Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, who did not issue notice in the matter after the Central government – represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta – said it will file a response to the habeas corpus plea. The plea was moved on behalf of Faesal through a 'pariorkar' or next of friend – Mohd Hussain Cader.

A habeas corpus plea requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or a court.

According to the affidavit filed by Cader along with the petition, Faesal's wife apprised him of the issue after which he moved the plea.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on 23 August.

According to the petition, Faesal was on his way to Harvard University in the US for higher studies when he was illegally detained at the IGI Airport in Delhi under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

The plea alleges that the manner in which he was “whisked away” to Kashmir without even a transit remand amounts to “abduction”.

The petition has contended that he was scheduled to travel to Boston in the US via Istanbul and Frankfurt when he was detained at the airport in Delhi.

It said he was travelling to the US to complete his course in Masters in Public Administration when he was “illegally picked up” from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

The former bureaucrat from Jammu and Kashmir had floated a political outfit – J&K Peoples Movement party – after resigning from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Post the removal of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir, provided under Article 370, Faesal had said Kashmir is experiencing an "unprecedented" lockdown and its eight million population has been "incarcerated" like never before.

(This piece has been edited for clarity.)