The Supreme Court will exude its judgment today, 10 January, 2020 at 10:30 am on the cluster of petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the restrictions and communication lockdown imposed in Kashmir since August 2019.
Various number of petitions have been filed in the matters comprising that of private individuals, advocates, social activists and political parties and they have also challenged the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, which splits J&K into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the previous year.
On November 27, 2019, a three judges bench comprising of Justices N V Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and B R Gavai had saved up judgment on a number of petitions daring the constitutionality of the lockdown in Kashmir, which was put in the wake of abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 of last year.
The apex court had heard the petitions filed by Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of Kashmir Times, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad and few intervenors. The PIL filed on 10 August, 2019, had looked out for immediate directions for the getting rid of of restrictions imposed on media, communication and the free movement of people.
The Centre on November 21, 2019, reasoned that the restrictions saying that due to the preventive steps taken neither a single life was lost nor a single bullet fired. The restrictions have virtually paralyzed the lives of 7 million people; their daily lives have been impacted. Education, medical care, business, agriculture, tourism etc, have taken a bad hit due to the lockdown of the state, submitted the petitioners.
