j-k-hc-reserves-order-on-aap-mla-mehraj-malik-s-psa-case

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, on Monday, reserved its order on a petition contesting the detention of AAP MLA Mehraj Malik under PSA. 

 

Malik, who is the AAP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit president, was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on September 8 last year for allegedly disturbing public order and was subsequently lodged in the Kathua jail. On September 24, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court, challenging his detention and seeking Rs 5 crore as compensation. Malik’s case came up for hearing before Justice Mohammad Yousuf Wani and the court has reserved the matter for pronouncement of orders, advocate Appu Singh Slathia said.

 

Slathia, who is also AAP spokesperson, said the court had granted both parties—Mehraj Malik’s legal team as well as the state—one week’s time to file a written synopsis or any additional submissions, if they wish to do so. Slathia said it has been a long and challenging legal journey but 'we remain hopeful and confident in the judicial process'. She asked Malik’s supporters and AAP activists to remain calm and positive.

 

Pertinently, onSeptember 8, 2025, Malik, the sole Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, was detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for a period of one year on grounds of disturbing public order. Detained after a heated confrontation with a district official in September 2025, AAP’s state president and lone MLA, Mehraj Malik, became the first sitting legislator in Jammu and Kashmir to be jailed under the Public Safety Act.

 

As for the background of the case, it was on September 6, 2025, that a heated confrontation in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Mehraj Malik and the deputy commissioner (DC), Harvinder Singh, over the relocation of a health sub-centre escalated into an unprecedented political row.

 

The confrontation began when Malik shifted a health sub-centre in Kencha, a small village in Malik's constituency, to a building allegedly owned by one of his supporters. Malik argued that the structure was safer and more accessible for villagers. Malik reportedly used abusive language against the DC while protesting the health department's failure to pay rent to the villager on whose property he relocated the sub-centre.