Supreme Court directs J&K to review Internet shutdown orders in 7 days

New Delhi: In a significant judgment with implications on basic freedoms beyond Kashmir, the Supreme Court on Friday said Internet access is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution and asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to review within a week all curbs in the Union Territory.

Welcomed by people in the Kashmir Valley who have been without Internet for the last five months as "happy news" at last, the Apex Court verdict also said Section 144 of the CrPC (prohibitory orders) cannot be used indefinitely to suppress freedom of speech and expression and difference of opinion.

Extending its observations to the media, the bench said freedom of press is a valuable and sacred right.

The three-judge bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana and also comprising Justices B R Gavai and R Subhash Reddy, asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to immediately restore Internet services in institutions providing essential services like hospitals and educational places.

However, there was no mention of any time-frame of restoration of Internet services to other sectors and people in the Valley.

The Apex Court said magistrates should apply their mind and follow the doctrine of proportionality while passing prohibitory orders.

The Supreme Court verdict, welcomed by the opposition Congress as the "first big jolt of 2020" to the government, came on a batch of pleas challenging the curbs imposed in Jammu and Kashmir after August 5 — when the Centre revoked the state's special status and bifurcated it into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

"It is a very, very significant pronouncement by the Supreme Court," Vrinda Grover, lawyer for Kashmir Times' executive editor Anuradha Bhasin whose plea was among those taken up, told reporters.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose plea was also taken up, labelled the judgment "historic".

"The government of India has misled the entire country. This time the Supreme Court was forthright and they didn't come under any pressure," he said. His party colleague, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, tweeted: "SC delivers first big jolt of 2020 to illegal activities of Modi Govt by stating importance of Internet as a fundamental right. Double shock for Modi-Shah that dissent cannot be oppressed by imposing section 144. Modiji reminded that nation bows before Constitution and not him!"

He added: "Modi-Shah now have a week to review internet restrictions and place the reasons before the public. No more 'sealed envelopes' to hide the truth in."

The National Conference and the People's Democratic Party welcomed the order too.

"The observations of the Apex Court about snapping of Internet services indefinitely are significant and the government must take a call to review and restore the connectivity immediately," NC provincial president Devender Singh Rana said here.

With agency inputs