Will publish review orders on Internet curbs: Jammu and Kashmir Administration tells Supreme Court

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 23

The Jammu and Kashmir Administration on Friday agreed before the Supreme Court to publish review orders of the Union Home Secretary-led special committee on shutdown of Internet services in the Union Territory, excluding internal deliberations.

Respondent No.1 (Union Territory of J&K) wouldn’t have any objection to publishing the review orders. We find that the stand taken by Respondent No. 1 is just unfair, particularly when other states are publishing the review orders, there should be no impediment for Respondent No. 1...” a three-judge Bench led by Justice BR Gavai said.

While hearing an application filed by Foundation for Media Professionals, the Bench, however, clarified that the internal deliberations of the committee need not be published after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that reasons for the order need not be published.

Maintaining that the issue involved political tangents, Mehta opposed the plea, saying the decision not to publish the committee’s review orders was a part of an internal mechanism in light of the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The original Internet shutdown orders were published and an aggrieved person can challenge it, Mehta said, adding it was not necessary to publish review orders.

“I am surprised that Jammu and Kashmir is resisting. All other states including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Meghalaya, including some border states, have published it,” petitioner’s counsel Shadan Farasat contended.

Noting that review orders on restoration of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir were “not meant to be kept in the cupboard”, the Supreme Court had on January 30 asked Jammu and Kashmir Administration to spell out its stand in two weeks. “What review orders are meant for? Review orders are not meant to be kept in the cupboard,” it had said.

The petitioner had sought publication of review orders and the mother orders on internet restrictions as mandated by the top court’s 2020 verdict in Anuradha Bhasin’s case and the Telegraph Act. The review committee is constituted under Rule 5 of the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017.

Declaring access to the Internet a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on January 10, 2020 ordered the Jammu and Kashmir Administration to review all orders imposing curbs in the newly created union territory following nullification of Article 370.

The top court had also linked the Internet to citizens’ right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g).  Noting that the right of trade through internet fosters consumerism and availability of choice, the Bench had said, “The freedom of trade and commerce through the medium of the internet is also constitutionally protected under Article 19(1)(g), subject to the restrictions provided under Article 19(6).”

On May 11, 2020, the top court had refused to order restoration of 4G mobile internet services in Jammu and Kashmir but ordered setting up of a special committee led by Union Home Secretary to take a call on the issue after factoring in the security situation on the ground. Besides the Union Home Secretary, Secretary, Department of Telecommunication Secretary and Chief Secretary of J-K are the panel. The national security and human rights needed to be balanced in view of the fact that J-K has been “plagued with militancy”, it had noted.

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