View: SC verdict on internet shutdown in Kashmir rightly demands the restoration of ‘reasonableness’

NEW DELHI: For a 21st century liberal democracy to indefinitely suspend Internet communication in a region it considers to be as undisputed a part of India as, say, the state of Delhi, isn’t a great advertisement for either ‘liberal democracy’ or how it governs it tackles its ‘undisputed’ parts.

The Supreme Court’s verdict that the Internet is a part of Article 19 – key to providing India’s citizenry with the ‘basic freedoms’ that include the freedom of expression – finally calls a spade a spade, and has demanded that Internet service be restored in Kashmir for all essential services, and that all orders of such a suspension under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) – that enforces curfew/the prohibition of the assembly of four or more people in an area – be reviewed within a week.