The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking security of tourists in remote hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir in view of the death of 26 people in the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
A bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh pulled up advocate Vishal Tiwari to file a PIL and said it had been filed to get only publicity without any public interest.
Justice Suryakant told Tiwari, “Why have you filed such a public interest litigation?” What is your real motive? Do you not understand the sensitivity of this issue? I think you must be fined to file this PIL.
The petitioner advocate said that for the first time it has happened that tourists have been targeted in Jammu and Kashmir, therefore, he is requesting to issue instructions for their safety. The bench said in its order, “The petitioner is involved in filing PIL one after the other, whose primary purpose seems to be to gain publicity without any real interest in the public interest.”
On April 22, militants opened fire at Basaron, a popular tourist destination in the upper areas of Pahalgam in Anantnag district, killing 26 people. Most of the dead were tourists. The incident has increased tension between India and Pakistan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the killers will be chased till the ‘end of the earth’.