The Centre on Wednesday agreed to release Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom from detention, The Leaflet reported. Qayoom will walk out of Tihar Jail in the national Capital on Thursday.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ajay Rastogi and Aniruddha Bose approved the submission made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir government. The court ordered that Qayoom’s Qayoom’s family should be allowed to receive him up from the prison.

However, the lawyer has been barred from visiting Jammu and Kashmir before August 7, or making any statements to the media.

While passing the order, the court said it had not analysed the merits of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court verdict upholding Qayoom’s detention. Qayoom had filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration had informed the Supreme Court on July 27 that Qayoom’s detention would automatically end on August 6. But Qayoom’s lawyers, Dushyant Dave and Vrinda Grover, argued that every day of detention was an unconstitutional curtailment of the petitioner’s liberty.

‘Look to the future’

The Supreme Court also observed that the Kashmir Valley has been going through tough times, but urged the people of the region to “look to the future”, The Hindu reported. The “Nature has been very kind to the place,” Justice Kaul said. “It is the human race that has been unkind. It is time for all wounds to be healed and look to the future within the domain of our country”.

The court said that there was a lot of potential for tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, and hoped the erstwhile state would soon return to normalcy.

The Indian government had on August 5 last year scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. It had also bifurcated the region into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. That day, several political leaders from the erstwhile state were put in detention. Some of them, such as National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, have now been released.