The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea to transfer the trial of Yasin Malik, a terror convict and former Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, from a Jammu court to Delhi. The agency proposed the trial be conducted via video conferencing in a makeshift courtroom within Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where Malik is lodged.
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and AG Masih issued notices to Malik and his co-accused in the cases, seeking their responses by December 18. The move comes as the court grapples with balancing the imperatives of national security and the constitutional mandate for a fair trial.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and advocate Rajat Nair, representing CBI, brought on record the agency’s application in the light of a Jammu court order mandating Malik’s physical presence for trial proceedings. Malik, the Jammu court directed, needed to be present in person for the cross-examination of witnesses in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Union minister and later Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, and the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel.
The CBI’s application cited substantial risks in transporting Malik to Jammu for trial proceedings, underlining his connections with international terror networks and describing him as “a national threat who headed a terror group and was instrumental in initiating terror activities.”
The plea highlighted that Malik had shared stages with figures such as Hafiz Saeed, a designated global terrorist, during his visits to Pakistan. The agency emphasised that Malik remains a “national threat”, and that his presence in Jammu could endanger public safety and complicate security arrangements.
The agency’s application condemned Malik’s refusal to engage legal representation, alleging that this was a deliberate strategy to compel his physical transfer under the guise of attending court proceedings.
“The Union of India has credible information about certain facts which makes it impossible to take Yasin Malik to J&K. It clearly appears that Yasin Malik is fully aware that he would never be taken to J&K except under the pretext of attending the court proceedings personally. It is precisely for this reason that he is refusing to engage the services of any lawyer though he and his organisation have the services of many lawyers in many similar cases in J&K,” said the plea.
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