Police had failed to give the grounds for his detention within the legally stipulated period. The court said that there could be no relaxation of the rule that a detainee held under the NDA should be informed of the grounds of detention without delay as this provision was “a safety valve for a citizen who is robbed of his liberty and to – disable the authorities from manipulating the grounds of detention.” Others reported to have been held under the NSA include leaders of the Jharkhand movement demanding a separate state structure for the largely tribal population living in Southern Bihar and neighboring states. They also include political and religious leaders from Punjab, among them the Akali Dal leaders Prakash Singh Badal, Gurch aran Singh Tohra and Sukhjinder Singh, each of whom was held for a year under the NSA in different jails outside Punjab. At the time of writing, Gurcharan Singh Tohra is still in Jodhpur jail, now accused of “waging war” under the Terrorist Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act. Several hundred members of various factions of the Akali Dal, including Mr. Badal and former Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala were detained under the NSA on and around 14 May 1988 when they participated in a peaceful demonstration against the security forces’ operations to remove armed Sikhs from the Golden Temple. 250 of them, including Mr. Barnala, were released in early June but Mr: Badal is still believed held on grounds of involvement in activities “prejudicial to the integrity of the country.”
3.2 The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act
The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, permits detention for acts con side red prejudicial to the security of the state for a maximum of a year. Political prisoners have been detained without trial under it for engaging in alleged “anti-national activities”; a number of them may have been prisoners of conscience. For example, one was released by court order in December 1987, when the state High Court declared the newly
