J&K Govt’s reply recorded: SC to hear 4G petitions on Monday

Srinagar: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday pleas seeking restoration of 4G internet connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir.

The J&K government has already filed its reply to all the petitions claiming that “right to access the internet is not a fundamental right.”

There are three petitions in the apex court filed against the suspension of 4G internet services.

One has been filed by J&K Private Schools Association (PSAJK), another by an organisation called Foundation of Media Professionals, and the third one by Advocate Soayib Qureshi.

On Wednesday, J&K government filed a single response to all the petitions.

In it, it has justified the nine-month long and continuing ban on high-speed mobile internet by calling internet “as an enabler of rights and not a right in itself.”

“It is submitted that internet is an enabler of rights and not a right in itself and that the present 2G speed of internet does enable one to create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge,” reads one of the 47 submissions in a 35-page reply from J&K government filed in the apex court on Wednesday. High-speed internet remains suspended across J&K since August 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated and the state divided into two union territories.