NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court order to shift ailing party leader Mohd Yusuf Tarigami from Jammu and Kashmir to AIIMS in Delhi for proper medical care.
Tarigami was detained by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on August 5, when the Centre withdrew the special status to the state and bifurcated it into two union territories.
"In today's hearing, relying upon the affidavit filed before the Supreme Court by Sitaram Yechury, it was also pointed out that the house arrest of Tarigami was on the face of it illegal as there were no charges against him and no order or detention has been issued, which authorizes his de facto detention," the Left party said in a statement.
It said the top court has also said that his security staff has been given oral instructions to keep him in de facto house arrest, unsupported by any authority of law.
"Thereafter the Supreme Court has also issued a notice to the Government of India on the points raised in the affidavit in the Habeas Corpus writ. The case will continue to be heard after the government's response," the statement said.
Yechury visited Tarigami and submitted his report to the court earlier this week. Earlier, Yechury had filed a habeas corpus requesting that Tarigami be produced in court.
The court, however, had said that the CPI(M) leader could visit his ailing colleague in Srinagar in the condition that he did not participate in any political activity.
The apex court on Thursday ordered that the ailing CPI(M) leader be shifted from Srinagar, where he is under detention at his home, to AIIMS in Delhi without any delay.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer said the shifting will be done following consultations between doctors at Srinagar's Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.