The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist), to travel to Kashmir to meet detained party leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami.
The bench consisting of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S A Bobde and Abdul Nazeer observed that citizens must be allowed to have access to Jammu and Kashmir.
When Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected that the visit might give rise to political unrest, the CJI-led bench added that the visit must not be used for political purposes.
"If petitioner is found indulging in any other activities other than meeting his friends and colleagues, bit will be treated as violation of court order", the Court said. Yechury has also been asked to submit a report of his visit to the CJI.
The bench also allowed law graduate Mohammad Aleem Sayed to travel to Anantnag to meet his parents. Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for Sayed, told the bench that the petitioner wished to meet his parents.
Both the petitions are kept pending and the petitioners have been asked to submit a report on their visit to the CJI.
Yechury had filed the habeas petition challenging the detention of Tarigami, a four-time CPI(M) MLA from Kulgam in the now dissolved J&K assembly, who was detained on August 5 in the backdrop of central government measures to revoke the special status of the state.
Senior Adovcate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Yechury, told the bench that the 72-year old leader is not keeping well.
Yechury had travelled to Srinagar on August 9 to meet him but was detained at the airport. Despite giving advance information to the J&K Governor about his plan to meet Tarigami, he was not allowed access citing "law and order problems", said Yechury in the petition filed through Advocate Shadan Farasat.
The continued detention of Tarigami is violative of fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, the plea contended
Yechury says that he is constrained to seek a writ of habeas corpus due to absolute lack of information regarding the whereabouts of Tarigami, who is ailing from age-related health problems.
Mohammad Aleem Sayed, a law graduate from Jamia Milia Islamia who is currently doing apprenticeship with a lawyer in Delhi, had filed the petition stating that he has not received any information from his parents and brother in Kashmir since the intervening night of 4th/5th August.
Sayed, who moved from Anantnag to Delhi in 2014 to pursue his law studies, said that he had tried to contact the Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag for information about his parents. But the attempts did not succeed and he raises the apprehension that his parents may have been detained.