The Supreme Court on Monday instructed the registrar generals of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Delhi High Court to ensure the availability of adequate video conferencing facilities for the ongoing trials involving Yasin Malik, the incarcerated chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The directive aims to streamline the judicial proceedings connected to two high-profile cases from 1989 and 1990, in which Malik is a key defendant.
The bench, consisting of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, is overseeing the implementation of these facilities at a special court in Jammu and Tihar jail in Delhi, where Malik is currently held. The move comes in response to a plea from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has expressed concerns over the security risks of transporting Malik from Tihar jail to Jammu for trial.
The cases in question include the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the 1990 attack that resulted in the deaths of four Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar. The Supreme Court has scheduled further hearings on the CBI’s request to transfer these trials to New Delhi for February 21, following an initial status report due on February 18 from the high court registrars.
