New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that ailing CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami 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 also 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.
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.
The bench also issued notice to the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration on CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury's plea that there was no common order for Tarigami's detention.
The bench sought a reply within one week and posted the matter for further hearing on September 16.
Yechury told the bench he has no objection if Tarigami, a former CPI(M) MLA, was shifted to AIIMS for better treatment.
"We want to reserve our right to challenge the detention of the former MLA in habeas corpus (bring the person) plea," Yechury told the apex court.
The top court had earlier allowed Yechury 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 also referred to other issues that have arisen in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.
The court said all issues will be heard on September 16 after getting responses from the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration.
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.
The CPI(M) on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court order.
"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.
(With inputs from PTI)