NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said that CPI (M) leader Mohd Yousuf Tarigami, who is in Delhi at present, is at liberty to go back to Srinagar as and when he feels that his health allows him to undertake the journey.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi passed the order after Tarigami's counsel said that the CPI (M) leader is at Delhi's Jammu and Kashmir guest house and he has been discharged by the AIIMS hospital after medical check up.
Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Tarigami, told the bench that doctors at AIIMS here has advised Tarigami to report to AIIMS or any hospital of convenience for follow up action after a month.
"Why are you (Tarigami) in Jammu and Kashmir guest house here? Why you are not going back to Srinagar," asked the bench, also comprising justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer.
Ramachandran replied that Tarigami is a Z category protectee but the security vehicles provided to him in Srinagar have been removed and he does not know if he would be allowed to go back there.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir administration, told the bench that there were no restrictions on Tarigami to go back to Srinagar.
"Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami will be at liberty to move to Srinagar as and when he feels that his health condition would enable him to undertake the journey," the bench said in its order.
Ramachandran told the bench that once Tarigami returns to Srinagar, no visitor would be allowed to meet him at his residence there and his movement would be restricted.
"We do not think that any order in this regard is required to be passed at this stage, as the same would be in anticipation of some actions on the part of the state government, which has not yet taken place," the bench said in its order.
It said if Tarigami has any grievance regarding movement in Srinagar, he would be free to approach the jurisdictional high court or the apex court.
"If he intends to move around any part of Srinagar, where there are restrictions or prohibitions to move, he will be free to do so subject to requisite permission from the district authorities," the bench said.
The apex court said that Tarigami's plea would be "kept open for a decision on the validity of the alleged detention of the petitioner claimed to be without any authority of law with effect from August 5, 2019."
The ailing leader was on September 9 shifted to AIIMS, New Delhi following the apex court order.
The top court had said that Tarigami should be shifted "at the earliest" to "the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, from Srinagar, where he was under house arrest".
He was put under house arrest on August 5 after the Centre abrogated the special status to Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 of the Constitution.
The top court had earlier allowed CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, who had filed the petition, to visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet his ailing party colleague and file an affidavit on his health condition.
Besides mentioning Tarigami's health condition in the affidavit, Yechury had also referred to other issues that have arisen in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.
The court had earlier made it clear that Yechury was allowed to visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet his party colleague only as attention had been drawn to an interim application seeking the court's orders to bring Tarigami to AIIMS.