A Kashmiri lawyer has challenged the dissolution of statutory bodies including the state human rights commission by the central government under the J&K Reorganization Act 2019.
The lawyer has filed an ‘Intervention Application’ (IA) in the Supreme Court of India, reports said on Friday.
The petitioner said he has filed a new ‘Intervention Application’ in the Supreme Court with regard to dissolution of important institutions in Jammu and Kashmir.
The petitioner has said that the State Human Rights Commissions, State Women’s Commission and State Legislative Council have been abolished in Jammu and Kashmir by the union home ministry following the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.
He has prayed that all these institutions may be allowed to function till the final verdict on Article 370 is given by the Supreme Court.
Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President's rule. The state Assembly was dissolved on November 2018 after the ruling coalition between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) fell apart in June 2018.
The Valley has remained under lockdown for over two months since the abrogation of the Article 370 by the BJP-led Centre and a sweeping crackdown on not just militants but even mainstream parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party with former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti under detention.
An array of political leaders, businessmen, lawyers, activists and others have also been confined to Centaur Hotel on the banks of Dal Lake which has been declared as a sub-jail by the state administration. Recently, four leaders including former lawmakers were released from the sub jail.
The government has not made any announcement yet on the charges under which most of the mainstream leaders and others have been arrested, and whether and when they will be released, although the release of four leaders seemed to have paved way for restoration of political process in the state.
Relatives of Omar and Mehbooba have been allowed to meet the leaders at Hari Niwas Palace and a guest house at Cheshma Shahi where the two leaders are being held respectively. Leaders of NC also met the party chief Dr Farooq Abdullah who has been held under the Public Safety Act.
Earlier, the daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija Mufti, had written to the home minister that she was fearing for her life and that she was being denied permission to meet her mother who she said has been confined to ‘one room’. She however later met her mother and has been lately sending out tweets from her mother’s account.