Srinagar: Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its surprise over the contents of an affidavit filed by Kashmir High Court Bar Association (KHBA) which said accession of the State to India, rigging in elections and the ‘catch and kill’ policy of the government forces are ‘historical reasons’ for the eruption of street violence and protests in Kashmir valley.
Hearing the petition filed by Kashmir High Court Bar Association seeking ban on pellet guns, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Deepak Mishra told the top lawyers of KHBA “we are slightly shocked”. The Supreme Court pointed out that the petition filed by the association dealt with expensive use of pellet guns by government forces for ‘crowd control’ but the affidavit filed by KHCBA blamed the accession of the state by India, rigging of elections since 1947 and the government forces for the street violence in Kashmir valley.
Responding to the observations of the Supreme Court, the KHBA lawyers said, “We only tried to point out the historical reasons. Advocate Zafar Qureshi, a top lawyer representing Kashmir High Court Bar Association said “the affidavit was filed after Supreme Court itself asked KHBA to give reasons for continuing protests and street violence in Kashmir Valley”.
Appearing on behalf of the central government, Solicitor General Ranjeet Kumar urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the KHBA petition for giving that the petition is not maintainable. Kumar submitted before the top court of the country that KHBA crossed the boundaries of their petition with their affidavit blaming the accession of State to India for street violence in Kashmir Valley.
He further said “KHBA says every election since 1947 was rigged and accession should not have happened and instead of peaceful means a catch and kill policy is adopted. The top court posted the case for hearing on January 18 2018.
