Tarigami at liberty to go back to Srinagar, says SC

New Delhi, September 16

The Supreme Court on Monday said that the CPM leader Mohd Yousuf Tarigami, who is in Delhi at present, was at liberty to go back to Srinagar as and when he felt that his health allowed him to undertake the journey.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, passed the order after Tarigami’s counsel said that the CPM leader was at Delhi’s Jammu and Kashmir guest house and he had been discharged by the AIIMS hospital after medical check-up.

Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Tarigami, told the bench that the doctors at AIIMS here had advised Tarigami to report to AIIMS or any hospital of convenience for follow-up action after a month. “Why are you (Tarigami) in Jammu and Kashmir guest house here? Why you are not going back to Srinagar,” asked the bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer. Ramachandran replied that Tarigami was a Z-category protectee, but the security vehicles provided to him in Srinagar had been removed and he did not know if he would be allowed to go back there. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir administration, told the bench that there were no restrictions on Tarigami to go back to Srinagar.

“Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami will be at liberty to move to Srinagar as and when he feels that his health condition would enable him to undertake the journey,” the bench said in its order.Ramachandran told the bench that once Tarigami returned to Srinagar, no visitor would be allowed to meet him at his residence there and his movement would be restricted.

“We do not think that any order in this regard is required to be passed at this stage, as the same would be in anticipation of some actions on part of the state government, which has not yet taken place,” the bench said in its order. It said if Tarigami had any grievance regarding movement in Srinagar, he would be free to approach the jurisdictional high court or the apex court. “If he intends to move around any part of Srinagar, where there are restrictions or prohibitions to move, he will be free to do so subject to requisite permission from the district authorities,” the bench said.

The apex court said that Tarigami’s plea would be “kept open for a decision on the validity of the alleged detention of the petitioner claimed to be without any authority of law with effect from August 5, 2019”. The ailing leader was on September 9 shifted to AIIMS, New Delhi, following the apex court order. The top court had said that Tarigami should be shifted “at the earliest” to “AIIMS, Delhi, from Srinagar, where he was under house arrest”. He was put under house arrest on August 5 after the Centre abrogated the special status to Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 of the Constitution. The top court had earlier allowed CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, to visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet his ailing party colleague . — PTI