Today, the Supreme Court of India disposed of the plea against ban on civilian traffic movement on the National Highway between Srinagar and Baramulla after the Jammu and Kashmir government said the restrictions are in place only till May 31. The plea was filed by Vice President Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference (ANC) Muzaffar Ahmad Shah.

 

 

 

 

Last week the Apex Court issued notices to both Central and Jammu and Kashmir governments, asking them to file responses within two weeks on the plea of Muzaffar Shah. The bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna ordered in its last hearing, “Issue notice on the writ petition, as also on the prayer for interim relief, returnable within two weeks,”.

  

 

On April 20, the J&K government partially relaxed the twice-a-week ban on civilian traffic. While traffic restrictions along Srinagar-Baramulla stretch remained only on Sundays, the two-day curb remained in force on the stretch between Srinagar and Udhampur. However, J&K government allowed patients, students, government employees and those in “emergencies” to use the national highway during the ban.

 

 

 

The Jammu and Kashmir Home department issued an order on April 3 to ban the movement of civilian traffic on 270 km Udhampur-Baramulla stretch of the Jammu-Srinagar-Uri national highway for two days every week from 4 am to 5 pm.