High Court of J&K issues notice to Ministry of Home Affairs on non-migrant Pandits’ plea

By Dilip -

Petition challenges exclusion of non-migrant Pandits from PM’s relief package 


Srinagar, January 3

Kashmiri Pandits, who did not migrate from the Valley and preferred to stay back, have challenged the recruitment process initiated by the government under the Prime Minister’s Relief and Rehabilitation Package (PMRP) for the migrant community before the J&K High Court. They have claimed that they have been “deprived and forced to live second-grade lives”. In a writ petition before high court, the community members have asked for declaring the SRO-412 — an ordinance which was issued by the J&K Government on December 30, 2009, to “facilitate the return process of Kashmiri migrant Pandits via a government job package” — as ultra vires to the Constitution. They have also challenged the exclusion of non-migrant unemployed Kashmiri Pandit youth from the PM’s package. Their number is stated to be 561.

After admitting the petition on December 31, 2013, the single bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar in its orders made available today issued notices to the respondents, including Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), J&K Government, Revenue Commissioner and the Relief Commissioner asking them to file a reply by the next date of hearing fixed in the third week of February.

The Valley witnessed a mass exodus of Kashmir Hindu community in 1990, while many families preferred to stay back—their number as per the census is 808. In the writ petition by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti and others filed before the high court in representative capacity, it has been said that Kashmiri Pandits who migrated in 1990 not only lived in “safe havens” created by the Government of India but were also were given certain allowances and their wards provided quotas in premier educational institutions of the country. They have also said that for the return and rehabilitation in the Valley, migrant Pandits are being provided jobs by the government, whereas the non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits who stayed back and braved all odds and threats to their lives have been deprived of all relief and rehabilitation programmes by the government.

“In view of the mass migration, the Government of India (GoI) has notified 3,000 vacancies which are being filled in accordance with the SRO-412, however, the said process of selection is not only unconstitutional but is purely on the basis of place of residence/religion, which is prohibited in terms of the Constitution of India read with the constitution of J&K,” the petitioners submitted while challenging the PM’s Relief and Rehabilitation Package and the recruitment process initiated under the SRO-412 by the J&K Government. The petitioners have submitted that out of the 3,000 vacancies advertised on August 2013, 1,446 persons have already joined service after selection, whereas 1,554 posts are likely to be filled.

“The government is in the process of selection and, strangely, the Kashmiri Pandits stationed in the Valley have not been considered against these vacancies,” they submitted, adding that 561 unemployed youth from the non-migrant Kashmiri Pandit population were not being considered against these posts. In their defense, the petitioners have also cited the Cabinet decision (no. 114/17/12) issued on June 20, 2012, wherein the J&K Government had directed the revenue authorities to “immediately work out an employment package for Kashmiri minorities who did not migrate on the same lines as is available to the Kashmiri migrants.” 

Kashmiri Pandits & Rehabilitation

* November 1990: Mass migration of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the Valley

 * April 25, 2008: Announcement of the Prime Minister’s Relief & Rehabilitation Package for the return of Kashmiri migrant community

 * December 30: The J&K Govt issues SRO-412 to facilitate the return process of Kashmiri migrant Pandits via a special job package

 * March 3, May 14, 2012: Non-migrant Pandits submit representations to the Prime Minister and J&K Government for their inclusion in the PM’s relief package

 * June 6: The J&K Government issues Cabinet order wherein the revenue authorities are directed to work out an employment package for Kashmiri minorities who did not migrate on the same lines as is available to the Kashmiri migrants.

 Also see:
High Court of Jammu & Kashmir upholds Sanjay Tickoo's petition for protection of religious places and castigates communal versions of nationalism

Sanjay Tickoo's Open Letter to Omar Abdullah - Police Officers facilitating the sale of Temples & Asthapans

Superflous people - review of 'Our Moon has blood clots'

The Law of Killing: a brief history of Indian fascism



B.R. Ambedkar's Pakistan or the Partition of India (Bombay, 1940,1945)


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