Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday heaped praise on the Uttar Pradesh fast-track court for rejecting the state government’s plea to close the Dadri lynching case, her comments being viewed as an indirect swipe at the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh that has told her off for “misusing courts to meet her political ends”.

Mehbooba praised the Surajpur court in Gautam Buddha Nagar for “standing up to power” amid “growing politicisation” of institutions meant for “safeguarding fundamental rights of people”.

The Jammu and Kashmir court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL by Mehbooba seeking the transfer of Kashmiri undertrials lodged in jails outside back to Jammu and Kashmir. The court chastised her for dragging the judiciary into “partisan” political agendas. PDP sources said the judgment had caused unease among
the party rank and file, although they had issued no official statement.

Mehbooba has drawn attention to the Surajpur court verdict, which rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s plea to withdraw all charges against the accused in the 2015 lynching of Mohammad Akhlaque on the suspicion of storing beef. The judge also said the trial should be fast-tracked and directed daily hearings.

“The Surajpur district court’s decision to reject the withdrawal of the Akhlaque lynching case comes as
a breath of fresh air,” she wrote on X.

The former chief minister then launched a scathing critique of “institutions meant to safeguard our fundamental rights” facing “growing politicisation”.

“This judgment reassures us that integrity still matters and that there are those like Judge Saurabh Dwivedi within the system willing to stand up to power in defence of justice and the rule of law,” she said.

On Tuesday, a Jammu and Kashmir High Court division bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal held that Mehbooba’s petition seeking transfer of Jammu and Kashmir undertrials from outside jails back to the Union Territory’s prisons was vague, unsubstantiated and politically driven
and failed to meet the legal standards required for entertaining a PIL.

The petition had said the undertrials should be sent back to Jammu and Kashmir jails unless authorities could demonstrate “unavoidable and compelling necessity” for such detention.

Mehbooba had also sought weekly family meetings, unrestricted lawyer-client interviews, constitution of oversight committees, monitoring by legal services authorities and travel reimbursement for families of prisoners.

Hundreds of Kashmiris are believed to be lodged in jails outside the Union Territory. Both the PDP and the ruling National Conference favour their return to Jammu and Kashmir.

The high court observed that the petitioner had failed to provide specifics of affected families or prisoners, the nature of cases, or any transfer orders.