Put the High Court’s directives for Internet suspension for Punjab and Haryana on file

Today, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered that the “necessary orders” that have been in place to halt internet access during the current farmer protest be recorded.

The bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of “Anuradha Bhasin versus the Union of India” as a number of petitions on the matter were brought up for resumed hearing this afternoon. They then noted that “the law is very clear on the suspension of the internet.”

As the Bench considered the motions for a judicial investigation into the death of a protestor on February 21, it also questioned Punjab over the post-mortem report. “Why is the post-mortem taking a week to complete? Which inquests have you completed so far? Was that a natural death? asked the Bench.

Punjab’s attorney told the Bench that a post-mortem had been performed the day before, and the report was still pending. Additionally, he said that Section 302 of the IPC had been used to file a zero-FIR in the case.

The Center submitted an affidavit, which the Bench also placed on record. It said, among other things, that there had been four rounds of talks with farmer representatives.