Jammu and Kashmir High Court: Sanjeev Kumar, J. while hearing a petition filed by Members of Parliament in respect to seeking permission to meet Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, President and Vice-President of J&K National Conference as both of them have been house arrested, the Court gave permission for the same, along with few conditions.
The petition has been filed in by two Members of the Parliament who belong to the same party as Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah in order to seek permission from the Court to meet the above-stated names.
It has been alleged by the petitioners that the stated names are party’s top functionaries who have been under house arrest since 05-08-2019 and have not been permitted to meet any of their relatives or party worker’s. Petitioner’s claim themselves as being very close friends to the above-named functionaries of the party and are only interested in their well-being.
Further, petitioner 1 also submitted that he being the retired Judge of the J&K High Court and a Senior Advocate after his retirement is also capable of rendering legal advice, assistant to them.
High Court called upon the Senior AAG, Javed Iqbal to ascertain,
Whether the petitioner had actually been prevented by respondents from meeting their party President and Vice-President, and if so, for what reasons?”
To respond to the above stated, AG and AAG, stated at Bar that there is no formal restriction put on the petitioners to meet their party President and Vice-President. Further, they also stated that State may not be averse to the meeting of petitioners, provided petitioners ensure that they would not do anything aimed to vitiating the peaceful atmosphere.”
Thus the Court while giving permission to the petitioners in respect to the meeting imposed a few conditions on them as stated below:
- Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar to facilitate a meeting of the petitioners with Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, President and Vice-President of J&K National Conference. It would be appropriate is the petitioners are permitted to meet the aforesaid persons separately on different occasions.
- Petitioners shall ensure that their meeting with their party president and vice president is restricted to a courtesy call and to know about the well-being;
- Petitioner after meeting their party president and vice president, shall not go to press/media regarding their meeting and deliberations with the aforesaid persons.
- It would be appreciated is Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar ensures the said meeting during the course of this week. [Hasnain Masoodi v. State of J&K, 2019 SCC OnLine J&K 762, decided on 11-09-2019]