CJI Dipak Misra distances Supreme Court from mediation in Jammu & Kashmir

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has distanced itself from former Chief Justice of India JS Khehar’s assurance to the Kashmir Bar Association that the court would nudge the government to set the peace process into motion if the association got the restive youth protesting on the streets of the militancy-hit state back to the schools.

The government had registered a strong protest at the time, saying the court should leave such matters to the executive.

On Wednesday, a three-judge bench headed by the new CJI Dipak Misra said, “If this court really wanted to know that (the reasons behind the protests in Kashmir) it is a mistake.”

The CJI was responding to submissions by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, the government’s second senior-most law officer, that no dialogue could be held with those who questioned the accession of Kashmir to India or questioned the legitimacy of successive elections held in the state.

Kumar questioned the submissions of the bar association that the protests were due to discontentment fuelled by successive “rigged” elections, the “controversial accession” to India and the failure of the peace process.

The bar association has also claimed that the special provisions on Kashmir had been chipped away over the years eroding its “sovereignty”, Kumar said, reading out from portions of the affidavit. The bar association defended its submissions saying that it had just placed the issues which were agitating the local youth after the court had sought its views on the subject.

CJI Misra was quick to nip any such submissions in the bud. Instead, he suggested that the matter be remanded back to the high court to decide. The top court will take it up again in January 2018.

Among the issues pending before the high court is a demand for compensation by the people who are affected by excessive use of force by the state. The bar association had initially challenged the use of pellet guns as disproportionate to the problem and also violative of the right to life of the citizens there. The high court had dismissed its plea, prompting the bar association to come in appeal to the top court.

The top court, then headed by CJI TS Thakur, had extended a healing touch to Kashmir by insisting that the government review its standard operating procedure on the ground and use alternative ways of crowd control and dispersal to check the fatalities.

The central government had assured the court that it had reviewed its policies on the ground and would explore alternative modes of dealing with street protests. However, CJI Khehar had extended the scope of the petition when he had insisted that the bar work on the youth and get them back to the schools as a pre-condition to get the peace process moving.