The Criminalisation of Academic Spaces in Kashmir: Understanding Shafat v. UT of J&K in Context
Mohammad Zayaan Asimi | 10 October 2026 | I.CONnect Blog
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir (‘HC’) recently quashed a preventive detention order issued against an individual on grounds of, amongst other things, possession of ‘anti-national’ literature. The judgment was delivered in Shafat Maqbool Wani v. UT of Jammu and Kashmir (‘Shafat’), a habeas corpus petition filed by the uncle of the accused. Amongst other things, the HC held that mere possession of such literature does not amount to a crime. This was a welcome judgment in Kashmir where the State has engaged in the practice of banning books through executive orders without proper justification. This post first provides a contextual analysis of the judgment in Shafat. Then, it discusses two constitutional issues that lie at the heart of such context: mere possession of ‘anti-national’ literature and the book bans in Kashmir. It argues that while the judgment in Shafat does not sufficiently engage with the claims made by the State, it reaffirms an important constitutional position that the State has been ignoring for long: that mere possession of books cannot be a criminal offence.