Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed a plea seeking release of a vehicle seized by police in connection with a case registered under the provisions of UAPA and Explosive Substances Act in 2023.
Justices Sindhu Sharma and Shahzad Azeem passed the verdict, observing that the accused duo have “jumped the gun” in approaching the court.
“The appellant (accused duo) seems to have jumped the gun and, instead of responding to the notice issued by the designated authority, filed an application for release of the vehicle. This action of the appellant is neither tenable from reading of Section 25 of the UA(P) Act nor permissible in view of the complete mechanism provided under Section 25 of the UA(P) Act,” the court observed.
It said “the present appeal is also not maintainable for the reason that Section 21 of the NIA Act provides for an appeal from any judgment or order not being an interlocutory order of the Special Court to the High Court, both on facts and law”.
It held that it is trite law that an order rejecting the application for release of seized property is interlocutory in nature as it does not finally determine the rights of the parties.
“Therefore, having regard to the bar created under Section 21 of the NIA Act, the present appeal, yet for this reason, is also not maintainable,” said the bench.
The accused had been arrested on November 27, 2023 by a police team in collaboration with 3rd RR near Sirhama in Anantnag district of south Kashmir.
The specific allegation against the duo is that during spot personal search of both the accused, 90 live rounds of AK-47 were recovered from the possession of Mehran-ud-Din Dar (one of the accused) and one live hand-grenade was also recovered from the possession of Yasir Ahmad Bhat (another accused), respectively.
The prosecution claims that both the accused had allegiance with the banned terrorist outfit Lashker-e-Toiba and “have been actively involved in terrorist-related activities, including instigation of youth to join terrorist cadres”, etc.
During investigation, police had seized one load-carrier (JK03L-4982) which the police says was used in the terrorist-related activities by the accused.
