Kashmiri separatist and terror-funding convict Yasin Malik walked into the Supreme Court on Friday amid high security, leaving the top court and the Centre’s law officers aghast and deeply annoyed.

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief, serving a life sentence at Delhi’s Tihar jail, wanted to argue his own case but the apex court orally clarified that it had passed no order allowing his personal appearance.

“Why does he want to appear personally? These days there is a virtual option. This is the best thing without compromising anything,” Justice Surya Kant, who headed a two-judge bench, said.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta chided the Tihar authorities for bringing Malik to court, saying: “There is a huge security risk and he is a high-risk individual who cannot be taken out of prison.”

The apex court was hearing a CBI appeal against an anti-terror court’s order in September in connection with the killing of four air force personnel and the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

The NIA court in Jammu had directed Malik, an accused in these cases, to appear personally before it so he could cross-examine certain prosecution witnesses.

In its appeal, the CBI argued that Malik was a threat to national security and could not be allowed outside jail.

However, the agency’s appeal did not have an effective hearing on Friday as the other judge on the bench, Justice Dipankar Datta, recused himself.

Justice Kant then referred the matter to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud for the constitution of another bench to hear the matter after four weeks.

Malik did not speak at any time during the hearing.

Mehta underscored that the Union home ministry had issued a notification under Section 268 CrPc that empowered the government to direct “that any person or class of persons shall not be removed from the prison in which he or they may be confined or detained”. He said this had been applied to Malik, yet jail authorities had brought him to the Supreme Court.

“It is a serious security issue,” Mehta complained and assured the court that it would not be allowed to happen again.

Additional solicitor-general Suryaprakash V. Raju endorsed Mehta’s stand and said the jail authorities had been “callous” in their approach.

Tihar jail is under the control of the Arvind Kejriwal government.