Attorney General K.K. Venugopal presented significant numbers which proved that the restrictions stopped the bloodshed in the Kashmir Valley and there is no shortage of facilities for the ordinary Kashmiri citizens.
The first law officer of India presented the judge’s Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi an important fact that since 1990, 41,866 persons have lost their lives in 71,038 terror incidents. This included 14,038 civilians; 5,292 security personnel and 22,536 terrorists.
“A terrible state of affairs, these are formidable reasons [for the lockdown]. These are security matters,” Justice S.A. Bobde, on the judge’s Bench, said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted a report which contained the fact not a single bullet has been fired in that region since the lockdown.
Justice Bobde asked the centre government to file an affidavit with complete details of this issue. Judge’s bench asked the government to restore normalcy as soon as possible as the national security is at stake.
The court asked petitioners like Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin to approach the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in case of “local” problems like lack of Internet and mobile connectivity.
“This [lockdown] was done by the Union of India. Public transport is not functioning, there is no way to communicate. Only a few landlines work. Media freedom is crippled. This is the 43rd day,” senior lawyer Vrinda Grover argued for Ms. Bhasin.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde presented the case of Kashmiris that the least local citizens expect is that “a child can go to school quietly and the mother is assured the child returns home safely”.
