New Delhi, Nov 5: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear the petition challenging the centre’s ban on pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir.
The petition filed by 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 ban order was “authoritarian and arbitrary”. “The ban order is unconstitutional, improper, authoritarian and arbitrary and violative of Article 14, 19 and 21 among other provisions of the Constitution of India,” he said, accusing the government of not applying its mind while 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.

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