@hsaputra - actually the `//` is not a require part of a URI, it is a scheme-dependent part that schemes chose to handle differently. For instance I think that Hadoop is alright with `file:/path/to/my/file` or even `file:path/to/my/file`.

This particular piece of code is just providing a quick sanity check. If the user enters an invalid URL they will get a specific error message downstream...