The National Conference on Monday said the party would take a legal course to challenge the detention of its president, Farooq Abdullah, under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Jammu and Kashmir.

'They have no justification to do that, but if they have booked him under the PSA, what can we do. We can only approach the courts. We will take constitutional and legal recourse,' senior NC leader Mohammad Akbar Lone told reporters in Srinagar.

Lone, the MP from north Kashmir, said the government's move is unfortunate and it is a matter of shame that Abdullah has been booked under the act.

'If there was anyone who would talk of India here, it was Abdullah. If anyone has been abused, it is Abdullah and today, this is how India pays him. This is very unfortunate,' he said.

Abdullah has been detained under the PSA, which enables authorities to detain any individual for two years without a trial.

The 81-year-old patron of the National Conference was under house arrest since August 5 when the Centre announced abrogation of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into Union territories.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration to respond to a plea seeking that the NC president be produced before a court.

The petition was filed by Tamil Nadu's MDMK leader Vaiko, seeking Abdullah's release so he could attend an event in Chennai.

Many Kashmiri leaders, including former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who is also Farooq Abdullah's son, are under detention in their residences and other makeshift facilities to contain protests against India's decisions.