'Publicity without public cause': SC rebukes petitioner over Pahalgam plea

The two-judge pulled up advocate Vishal Tiwari for filing the plea and berated the petitioner for acting without 'sensibility'

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking measures to ensure the safety of tourists in remote hilly regions of Jammu and Kashmir following the Pahalgam terror attack.

 

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh noted that the petitioner, advocate Vishal Tiwari, seemed to be filing successive PILs primarily for "publicity", without genuine public interest.

 

The bench, in its order, said, "The petitioner is indulging in filing one after the other PIL in which the primary aim appears to be to get publicity with no real interest in the public cause." 

 

 

"Why have you filed this kind of PIL? What is your real motive? Don't you understand the sensitivity of the issue? I think you are inviting some exemplary cost for filing this PIL," Justice Surya Kant told Tiwari, reported news agency PTI.

 

The April 22 attack took place in Baisaran meadow, a well-known tourist destination in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. Terrorists opened fire, killing 26 people - most of them tourists.

 

The attack heightened the tensions between India and Pakistan, with both countries taking a number of diplomatic actions.

 

India implemented several diplomatic measures, including suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, stopping cross-border trade via the Attari Integrated Check Post, and revoking the Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme for Pakistani nationals.