Prevented from visiting Jammu and Kashmir thrice, Ghulam Nabi Azad moves SC seeking permission to meet family

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been prevented from visiting Jammu and Kashmir thrice since the Centre scrapped Article 370 of the Constitution, has moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to visit his family in the state.

Azad’s petition will be heard by a bench comprising of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer on Monday.

The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir was part of a delegation of Opposition leaders , which included Rahul Gandhi, D Raja and Majeed Memom, which had tried to visit the state to assess the ground situation. The delegation had been sent back to Delhi from the Srinagar airport.

Azad, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, had also been prevented from attending a party meeting at the state Congress headquarters and was sent back from the Jammu airport on 20 August. Previously, on 8 August, he had been briefly detained and sent back from the Srinagar airport.

In his petition, Azad has also sought to examine the “social conditions” in the state, which has been under clampdown following the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union territories on 5 August, said a report in The Indian Express .

The bench will also hear a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of provisions of Article 370, validity of imposition of President’s rule and the related restrictions imposed in the state.

Among them is the plea of CPM leader Sitaram Yechury who had moved the apex court seeking to see his ailing party colleague Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami.  The top court had on 29 August allowed him to pay a visit to Tarigami but with certain conditions and had granted him liberty to file a report on his return.

The apex court had on 5 September allowed Iltija Mufti , daughter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, to visit her mother in Srinagar, where she is being held under detention. The bench had however instructed Iltija to seek permission from the district authorities to visit other parts of the city.

With inputs from PTI