![How long can Mehbooba Mufti be detained, the Supreme Court asks J&K? How long can Mehbooba Mufti be detained, the Supreme Court asks J&K?](https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-03/t7hm2rhg_mehbooba-mufti-pti_625x300_30_March_19.jpg)
The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has been detained for more than a year.
New Delhi:
Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija and her brother can be reunited with their detained mother, the Supreme Court today heard her daughter’s petition challenging the detention of the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir under the strict Public Safety Act (PSA) .
“How long can Mehbooba Mufti be kept in custody?” The Supreme Court asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration.
Mehbooba Mufti, the head of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has been detained for more than a year after being arrested on the eve of the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into two Union Territories on August 5, last year.
The high court today gave the Jammu and Kashmir administration two weeks to rule on how long Ms Mufti can be kept in custody and whether her custody can be extended beyond one year.
“What is the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s proposal on his arrest,” said a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
In July, Ms. Mufti’s detention under the Public Security Act was extended for another three months.
Attorney General Tushar Mehta, who represents the government, asked the judges not to make any observations, saying that Jammu and Kashmir have had a history of violence.
“The history of the state is wonderful, but what can you say. Prima facie you have exceeded the maximum period of detention,” said Judge Kaul.
Iltija Mufti had gone to the Supreme Court to ask for her mother’s release. She also asked the court for permission to file a habeas corpus, to file Mehbooba Mufti in court. In her guilty plea, Iltija Mufti says that her mother’s detention is illegal and that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has not yet submitted its response to her earlier petition despite a notice and this, she said, shows the respect that the authorities have by court.
She also said that Mehbooba Mufti’s relatives have not been allowed to meet with her.
The high court, during the hearing via videoconference, said that every time Iltija Mufti requests to meet with her mother, the concerned authorities must make a decision on the matter.
Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, who had been under house arrest since August last year, have already been released.
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