Expectant mother pleads case of jailed husband

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 21

Shabnan, 26, hailing from Shopian district in south Kashmir, is an expectant mother and is in the third trimester. Ideally, she should have been at her home taking care of herself, but today she was pleading the case of her jailed husband before the High Court in Srinagar.

While pleading the case before a single-judge Bench of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey today, Shabnam, accompanied by her three-year-old daughter and mother, submitted that her husband Nazir Ahmad Shah, 30, had been placed under preventive detention since July 9, 2016, and booked under the Public Safety Act.

As the lawyers at the Kashmir High Court are on a strike owing to a separatist-sponsored shutdown call, Shabnam narrated her tale before the judge herself, submitting that she was pregnant and required regular nursing by her husband as they were living in Urpara Nagbal village in Shopian in south Kashmir.

“As my husband has been detained at a far-off place in the district jail, Kathua, I am not in a position to travel long distances and meet him in the jail,” she submitted. “The subsequent separation during this period, when I am expecting, has induced me to hypertension and such condition if not properly taken care of may result in fatal condition for me as well as my expecting baby,” Shabnam submitted before the judge, while requesting him that the authorities be directed to shift her husband to a jail nearer to her home in Kashmir.

She was assisted in drafting of her petition and application by counsel Mir Shafaqat Hussain.

Considering her plea, Justice Magrey directed the authorities concerned to consider the lodgement of the detainee in Central Jail, Srinagar.

“The medical records regarding the illness of the applicant-mother are supported by the certificates by the doctors. The applicant has further submitted that she is not in a position to undertake long journeys, like the one on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. In case she undertakes such journey, it will have fatal results on the expecting child in terms of the medical evidence,” the High Court observed in its orders passed today.

“In the meantime, the Shopian District Magistrate is directed to consider the lodgement of the detainee in Central Jail, Srinagar, by modifying his order of detention to this extent. In case, the magistrate fails to do the needful, the Superintendent, Central Jail, Kathau, shall ensure presence of the detainee before the court on the next date of hearing fixed on October 27,” the court said.