New Delhi:Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) chief and Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko has filed a habeas corpus petition for former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah.
Farooq Abdullah has been under detention in Srinagar for more than a month now.
In his plea, Vaiko said that Farooq Abdullah was invited as a guest for birthday celebrations of former Tamil Nadu CM CN Annadurai but has been incommunicado for a long time.
He has asked the Supreme Court to direct that Farooq Abdullah is presented before the apex court and that he is permitted to attend Annadurai's celebrations on September 11.
The plea is expected to be mentioned on Thursday.
A habeas corpus is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.
Vaiko added that he had written to authorities on August 29 to seek the permission of the Central government as well the Secretary, Home Department, Jammu and Kashmir, to allow Dr Farooq Abdullah to travel to Chennai but he failed to get a response.
The MDMK chief also termed the arrest of mainstream Kashmiri leaders as "illegal and arbitrary".
Most of the top-level and second-rung Kashmiri separatist politicians have been taken into preventive custody while mainstream leaders, including three former chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- have also been either detained or placed under house arrest.
The leaders were placed under detention on August 5 when a statewide curfew was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir.
The curfew came as the Centre announced the abrogation of Article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir as well as the bifurcation of the state into two Union territories.
As a host of political leaders continue to remain under detention, Jammu and Kashmir's three former chief ministers Farooq and Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, as well as others, are now allowed brief visits by their relatives in accordance with the jail manual, officials said.
While Omar and Farooq Abdullah were met by relatives, Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Sana Iltija had to file an SC petition to meet her mother.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed the PDP chief's daughter Iltija to meet her after she submitted in court that she has no problem in going to their Srinagar home but has not been able to move freely in the city.