The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration on a habeas corpus petition to produce before the top court former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who is under detention since last month when the Centre scrapped special status from the state and divided it into two union territories.

The petition was filed by MDMK Chief and Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko, a close personal friend of Abdullah and the apex court has asked for a response from the Centre by September 30. In his petition, Vaiko had demanded that the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, who has been under house arrest since August 4, be released and allowed to attend an event in Chennai.

Some 400 politicians including Abdullah and other former chief ministers  Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah are under arrest since the scrapping of special status last month.

The apex Court also asked CPI (M) leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami why he has not returned to Jammu and Kashmir after treatment for an illness at Delhi’s AIIMS. The same three member bench said the former MLA does not need any permission to go home if doctors at AIIMS allow him.

Last week, following an apex court order, Tarigami was moved from Srinagar to AIIMS in Delhi. Accompanied by a doctor, a relative and a police officer, Tarigami arrived in New Delhi and was taken to AIIMS. The Supreme Court had on September 5 said Tarigami should be shifted “at the earliest” to “the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, from Srinagar, where he is under house arrest.” The bench had said the shifting will be done following consultations between doctors at Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

—India Legal Bureau