‘Tried reading it for 30 mins, couldn’t make sense’: CJI Ranjan Gogoi on Article 370 plea

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Updated: Jun 16, 2020 00:56 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday reprimanded advocate M.L. Sharma for filing a frivolous application opposing the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Ranjan Gogoi said: “Your petition is not maintainable. I tried reading it for half an hour but could not make sense of it.”

The CJI also pulled up Kashmiri advocate Shabir Shakil also 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.

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Attorney General K.K. Venugopal countered this by saying that restrictions has been eased and 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 has adjourned the matter putting on the record that petitions were defective on technical aspect.

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

(The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text).