Friday, 29 Mar 2024

India top court rules Modi government's 'limitless' Internet shutdown in Kashmir illegal

NEW DELHI (BLOOMBERG) – India’s top court ruled that the “continued, limitless” Internet shutdown enforced by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kashmir for last five months is “illegal”.

Repeated restrictions on assembly were an abuse of power, the court found, and said Mr Modi’s administration must publish its orders to enable citizens to challenge them in court and restore government websites, hospital and banking services.

In a ruling that was critical of the government but stopped short of overturning the communication and transport restrictions that have been in place since Aug 5 when Mr Modi scrapped nearly seven decades of autonomous status of Kashmir, the Supreme Court ordered the government to review them in Kashmir within seven days.

There was no mention of the political leaders – including three former chief ministers – who have been detained since the shutdown began.

The verdict will be a disappointment for Mr Modi’s government, which is fast tracking implementation of his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda after winning a sweeping mandate for his second term last year.

The surprise announcement to renounce the special status of Kashmir – India’s only Muslim majority state – was the first among the three significant acts affecting Muslims in the last year.

In November the Supreme Court handed a victory to Hindu groups over Muslim petitioners in a centuries old dispute over the ownership of a plot of land in northern city of Ayodhya, which was claimed to be the birth place of Hindu god Ram. A medieval era mosque that stood at the disputed site was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.

The latest move that has prompted weeks of protests across the country is the introduction of a religion-based test in the citizenship law that allows migrants of all faiths except Islam from neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship.

Large scale demonstrations and police crackdown on protesters has left more than a dozen people dead and the country deeply divided on religious lines.

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