On August 28, the court had cleared the way for a student of Jamia Millia University, Mohammad Aleem Syed, to visit his parents in Anantnag and file a report on his return.The Supreme Court will on September 16 hear a petition challenging the “communication blackout” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Issuing a notice, a bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer said “it will be open for the respondents to file their counter affidavit, to which, a reply may be filed… to enable the Court to hear the matter on the date fixed”.
Appearing for Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin, Advocate Vrinda Grover said she had still not been able to publish her newspaper from Srinagar and that communication was “crippled” even a month after the restrictions were put in place.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said many other papers were being published from Srinagar, and “our case is she had consciously chosen not to publish”. Grover said it was still not known under what order the restrictions were put in place.
The court also declined to entertain another plea by activist Tehseen Poonawala challenging the restrictions, but said he was free to file an intervention application in Bhasin’s petition.
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When Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora tried to press the plea, the bench questioned Poonawala’s credentials. “What does he do? What are his his credentials? What is his connection with J&K? You want us to ask all these?” the CJI asked Arora.
Another lawyer from J&K said people were unable to access hospitals. The AG denied this citing figures. and added that the restrictions were being lifted gradually.
On August 28, the court had cleared the way for a student of Jamia Millia University, Mohammad Aleem Syed, to visit his parents in Anantnag and file a report on his return. Accordingly, he filed a report in sealed cover.
