Restore normalcy in J&K, SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court asked the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration to restore normalcy in the state as soon as possible keeping in mind national interest and internal security, as the shutdown entered its 43rd day on Monday.

The top court also said there was a "terrible state of affairs" in the Valley and there were "formidable reasons" for imposing restrictions.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer asked the state to make all endeavours to restore normal life and allow people to have access to healthcare facilities, schools and colleges and public transport and directed the Centre to file an affidavit.

The court's directions came while dealing with a plea by Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin on the restrictions imposed on communications and movement of journalists in the state following the scrapping of Article 370.

Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal said the state faced a three-pronged attack - one by separatists-funded stone pelters, second by terrorists being pushed from the foreign country and third by some businessmen supporting local militants.

The attorney general said 41,866 persons had lost their lives in 71,038 incidents of terrorist violence since 1990 till Aug 5 this year.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state, also submitted that not a single bullet had been fired since August 5, when the special status to Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn.

In reaction, the bench termed the situation a “terrible state of affairs”. “These are security related issues. Normalcy must be restored keeping in mind the national interest,” the bench said.

Venugopal said the plea by Bhasin was “not genuine” as the same newspaper, Kashmir Times, was being published from Jammu.

So far as Kashmir was concerned, he said several newspapers were being published from Srinagar without any impediments. He asked if the petitioner was not publishing to make out a case here. He also named a few news channels being telecast unhindered from the Valley.

To this, the bench said, “We want to know who has done it and for what reasons. You have to restore the services. We can't solve all this problem.”

"All forms communication, subject to overriding consideration of national security, shall be normalised if required on a selective basis, particularly for the healthcare facilities," the bench ordered.

The court asked Venugopal to file an affidavit and put the matter for hearing on September 30.

During the hearing, the court also warned child rights activists Enakshi Ganguly and Prof Shanta Sinha of consequences after their counsel senior H Ahmadi contended that there was no access to the High Court over there.

“We will contact the chief justice of the high court. If what you were saying is not correct, then consequences would follow. We will visit the High Court, if need be,” the CJI said.