What kind of petition is this: SC pulls up petitioner over defective pleas on Article 370

Source: indiatoday.in

She Supreme Court on Friday pulled up petitioner ML Sharma over the defective pleas challenging Centre’s decision to scrap provisions of Article 370 which abrogated special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The SC questioned lawyer petitioner ML Sharma, saying that his petition against Centre’s move on Article 370 has “no meaning”.

“What kind of petition is this? It could have been dismissed but there are 5 other pleas with registry,” the Supreme Court said.

The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that he spent 30 minutes reading the petition on Article 370 but could not make out anything.

The Supreme Court asked the lawyers to cure defects in their six petitions on Article 370 and adjourned the hearing.

The CJI also pulled up Kashmiri advocate Shabir Shakil also for for filing a similar defective application. The bench during the hearing identified that petitions on Jammu and Kashmir had one or the other defect.

It also took up the plea filed by Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin seeking relaxation of media movement in the valley and the communication shutdown.

“I have read in the media report that restrictions on landline and broadline are likely to be removed by the evening today,” the CJI said.

Attorney General KK Venugopal countered this by saying that restrictions has been eased Kashmir Times has been publishing its edition from Jammu without any curbs.

He said that the petition appears to be a motivated plea and therefore they have jumped a gun to come to a conclusion and that there was a complete communication lockdown in the valley.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta seconded Venugopal on the security situation in the valley. “Security agencies are taking stock of the situation and the court must trust its agencies,” Mehta said.

The top court said that these petitions will be listed next week after the order of Chief Justice on the administrative side.

On media restrictions, the Supreme Court said, “We would like to give little more time on issue of lifting restriction on media in Jammu and Kashmir.”

The Supreme Court further said that they read in the news that landline connections were being restored and also received a call on Friday from the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

“We will take up this matter on media restrictions along with other connected matters,” the Supreme Court said without fixing any particular date.