Agencies
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Central government and ten states in a petition highlighting attacks on Kashmiris.
A Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna heard Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioner and Attorney General KK Venugopal before issuing notice.
Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner, submitted that fresh attacks on Kashmiris have taken place in Maharashtra and Punjab.
Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Court that the issue of attack on Kashmiris is not new, and that Nodal Officers had already been appointed sometime back.
He also told the Court that new advisories have been issued by the Centre regarding the issue.
The Court noted the same and proceeded to issue notice to ten states and the Cental government.
It also ordered Nodal Officers appointed by the Centre to take steps to prevent acts of threat, intimidation, social boycott, and assault on Kashmiris. The appointment of such nodal officers have to be given wide publicity, the Bench stated.
Further, the DGPs of states have also been ordered to ensure that such violence does not take place.
The matter will now be taken up on Wednesday next week.
A petition filed in the backdrop of attack on Kashmiris after the Pulwama Terror attack was filed in the Supreme Court. The petition filed by Tariq Adeeb, a practicing lawyer, was mentioned yesterday for early listing.
The petition has arraigned eight states and the Central government as respondents. The respondent states are Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
It provides details of attacks on people from Kashmir in different parts of the country. The petitioner has prayed for steps to be taken to prevent such attacks, threats, and social boycott against Kashmiris.
Specifically, the petition prays for directions to be issued to heads of institutions including educational institutions to take steps to protect the lives of Kashmiris. The petition also prays for prosecution of persons indulging in hate speech, and seeks the appointment of a Nodal Officer in every State and Union Territory to prevent acts of violence and vigilantism and to ensure prosecution of offenders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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