Right to information can’t be curtailed: SC

India is placing its fourteenth request to Pakistan for consular access to former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, government sources said in New Delhi on Thursday.

India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) also said it had “no information” on reports that a former Pakistan Army officer of the rank of lieutenant colonel had been kidnapped near the Indo-Nepal border on the Nepalese side, sparking speculation that a prisoner swap was being considered as a last option by the government to save Mr Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court.

However, Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said that there would be no compromise on Mr Jadhav’s death sentence.

Pakistan has ignored 13 previous requests by India over the past year for consular access to Mr Jadhav. Pakistan has accused Mr Jadhav of carrying out sabotage activities on behalf of India, which has rejected the charges. The Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear that it can’t curtail the right to seek information, knowledge and wisdom as long as the search of information on the internet does not violate sex determination law.

Giving this ruling a bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A.M. Khanwilkar and M.M. Shantanagouder said, “There is no need for anyone to infer that there is any right to curtail information, knowledge and wisdom, without violating the law which bars sex determination tests.”

The Bench passed this order on a batch of petitions filed by NGO Sabu George after hearing senior counsle Harish Salve, Abhishek Singhvi and K.V. Viswanathan, appearing for the search engines, counsel Sanjay Parikh for petitioner and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar for the Centre.

Search engines Google, Microsoft and Yahoo said that they would not sponsor any advertisement on pre-natal sex determination tests. They said “if we find something objectionable we will inform the nodal officer and remove the contents if required.” The bench said that volumes of literature come within the internet and such data can’t be curtailed as long as the content does not defeat the obejects of the law.