Ban on pre-paid mobile service in J-K challenged in SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to give a hearing to the petition challenging the Centre's ban on pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir. The petition filed by Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party was mentioned for urgent hearing before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam which put the matter for hearing on November 16. Advocate Bhim Singh, who is the chairman of the party, contended the government's order to ban pre-paid services in the state from November 1 was "authoritarian and arbitrary". "The ban order is unconstitutional, improper, authoritarian and arbitrary and violative of the Article 14, 19 and 21 among other provisions of the Constitution of India," he said. Singh accused the government of not applying its mind on the subject for issuing a blanket order.The petition contended why the same procedure could not be adopted for verification of the subscriber seeking pre-paid plan as adopted in the case of post-paid plans. "If verification for the use of the post-paid plan is done to the satisfaction of the Union Home Ministry, why the same procedure is not adopted for the verification of the subscribers seeking pre-paid plan," the petition said. The Home Ministry has ordered no fresh pre-paid mobile connections be issued and that existing pre-paid SIM cards should not be renewed in the border state after November 1 due to security reasons.

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