Gauhati HC quashes sedition case against Assam MLA Aminul Islam

Guwahati, Nov 30 AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam, who was arrested under the National Security Act and other charges in April, was set free after the Gauhati High Court quashed his detention order.

Issuing an order in a criminal writ petition, a division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Rajesh Mazumdar set aside the case against Islam and asked the authorities concerned to release him from jail.

On April 24, the three-time MLA was arrested on sedition charges after he had made "misleading and instigating" statements in public, which went viral and had the "potential to create an adverse situation".

"The petitioner was not informed about his right to prefer a representation to the detaining authority itself either when the order dated 14.05.2025 was served on him or at any time thereafter," the high court said while referring to a lower court directive.

The right of the petitioner to prefer a representation to the central government against the detention order had been informed to him after 23 days, that too when the Centre had required such right to be informed to the detenu, it said.

"What follows from the above is that the detaining authority, while issuing an order of preventive detention of a citizen, did not follow the rigours attached as conditions for exercise of the powers," the HC order, passed on Thursday, said.

The detaining authority did not inform the detenu of his right to prefer a representation to the detaining authority itself, it added.

"In the considered opinion of this court, this lapse on the part of the detaining authority is alone sufficient to vitiate the detention imposed on the petitioner," the order stated.

The judges also said that there is no explanation for the time consumed by any of the authorities while dealing with the representation filed by the petitioner.

"Coupled with this, the petitioner was never informed about his right to represent to the detaining authority and further, his right to represent to the central government came to be informed to him only after the central government had reminded the Additional Secretary to the Government of Assam, with a copy of to the District Magistrate, Nagaon," the high court order added.

In view of these facts, the court did not consider it necessary to go into the other points as it was satisfied that for the said one reason alone, the detention order stands "vitiated" and the other issues raised by the petitioner were not required to be examined.

"Accordingly, the writ petition deserves to be allowed. In the result, the impugned orders dated 14.05.2025 and 25.06.2025 are hereby set aside and quashed, and the detenu is directed to be set at liberty, if not otherwise wanted in any other case," it added.

The AIUDF MLA made the comments after the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed at least 26 people, mostly tourists.

In a viral video shot during the panchayat poll campaign by Islam in April, the Dhing MLA was heard alleging that the Pahalgam and Pulwama attacks were perpetrated by conspirators who want to polarise the country on communal lines.

The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) had distanced itself from the legislator's comments, stating that the views were his own and not of the party.

On February 14, 2019, 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack in Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Earlier, Islam was arrested by the Assam Police in April 2020 for making "objectionable" remarks about the condition of quarantine facilities and hospitals where COVID-19 patients were treated. He had called these facilities "worse than detention centres".