Army convoy crosses national highway near Panthachowk, Srinagar on Sunday. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)At least five writ petitions were filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court against the order restricting civilian traffic for two days a week on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in order to allow convoys of security forces to ply exclusively. The court is expected to hear these petitions on Tuesday. The petitions, including those filed by the PDP and former bureaucrat Shah Faesal, state that it violates basic rights of citizens.
The order was issued by Governor Satya Pal Malik’s administration on April 3. The directive issued in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack has cited “Parliamentary elections and associated possibility of any fidayeen terror attack on Security Forces’ Convoys” as justification for restricting civilian traffic on the highway on the specified days of the week till May 31.
PDP’s senior leader and former public works minister Naeem Akhtar filed a PIL on Monday through former advocate general of the state, Jehangir Iqbal Ganai.
The petition seeks that the court declare the government order No. 353-Home (ISA) of 2019 as unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petition also states that the order is “ultra vires” to the National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002.
“Also in the interest of public safety or convenience the Highway Administration in terms of Section 35 can restrict the use of vehicles on highway. However, a notification in terms of Section 28 and Section 35 has to be published in the official gazette. The impugned order has neither been published in the official gazette nor has been issued by a competent authority as mandated by the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002,” reads the petition.
Another petition in this regard was filed by former bureaucrat and president of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM), Shah Faesal.
The petition states that while “the petitioner respects the right to life of the security forces whose safe travel is the utmost priority of the state government”, the right to movement of the indigenous population should not be infringed.
Listed before Division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Tashi Rabstan, the PIL will be heard Tuesday, Faesal said. It also challenges the J&K government order stating that it reflects a “lack of understanding of the ground situation and if the state utilised the additional train service or staggered the timing of the force’s convoys there would not have arisen the need to pass such an order in the first place”.
Apart from the petitions in court, People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone wrote to Governor Malik on Monday to lodge a formal protest against the order. “By barring the movement of the people of the state on two days a week, does the state administration want to convey that the fundamental rights are not applicable to the state of J&K or that the administration has the power to suspend these rights at its whim and caprice,” Lone wrote in his letter.
Three more writ petitions were filed by residents from different parts of the Valley.
