The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing adjourned for for April 4, of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea, seeking to transfer the trial against separatist leader Yasin Malik and other co-accused in two cases from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi.
Yasin Malik, lodged in Tihar Jail, was present before the Supreme Court through video-conferencing.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan deferred the hearing after the CBI sought adjournment as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was not available.
During the hearing, Malik appeared before the bench through videoconferencing and requested that the court postpone the matter until after Ramzan, which the apex court agreed to.
The bench said Malik was to remain present before it through video-conferencing on April 4.
The top court, on the last date of hearing, had directed Malik to appear before it via videoconferencing on March 7, the last day of the hearing.
Earlier, the apex court had directed the Registrar General of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court to ensure proper videoconferencing facilities at a special court in Jammu where Malik’s trial will take place.
It had also directed the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court to ensure proper video conferencing facilities at Tihar jail, where Malik is lodged in connection with another case.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking the transfer of the trials in the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping and the 1990 Srinagar shootout cases from Jammu to New Delhi.
CBI also challenged the order of the Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu (TADA/POTA), passed on September 20 and September 21, issuing a production warrant against Malik in two different cases.
A Jammu Court had sought Malik’s physical appearance for the cross-examination of witnesses in relation to the killing of four IAF personnel and the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, in 1989.
The apex court had stayed the order of the Jammu court in April 2023.
Last December 18, the apex court gave the six accused two weeks’ time to respond to the CBI’s plea to transfer the trials of the cases. The apex court had said that all the accused had to be heard if the trial was to be transferred.
It had earlier suggested setting up a makeshift courtroom in jail to conduct trials against terror convict Malik in two cases and remarked that Ajmal Kasab was also given an opportunity for a fair trial.
The Jammu court has been hearing the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping and the 1990 Srinagar shootout cases involving jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik and others.
He has been lodged in Tihar jail after a special NIA court sentenced him in May 2023 in a terror-funding case. (ANI)
