Resettlement law: SC pulls up J&K govt on adjournment

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Jammu and Kashmir government for seeking an adjournment in hearing on a plea questioning validity of state legislation, that allowing the descendants of those who migrated to Pakistan to return back. The state sought to defer the hearing on the ground of there being the no-elected government.

“What has the adjudication of a legal issue got to do with no elected government? How can you say there is no government in the state? We understand there is a President rule,” a three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked state counsel Shoeb Alam.

The council has circulated a letter seeking an adjournment in the hearing as there is no elected government in the state.

The bench, also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, disagreed to the plea by the state counsel for putting the matter for consideration in April.

The court put the matter for fixing the date before the CJI in chamber.

During the hearing, the bench pointed out senior advocate Prof Bhim Singh, appearing for petitioner Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party, that not a single person has come to the state by taking the help of the law. On this, Singh said it was due to the stay on operation of the law by the top court.

The Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act of 1982, which was stayed by the apex court in 2001, envisages grant of permit for resettlement of Pakistani nationals who had migrated to Pakistan from Jammu and Kashmir between 1947 and 1954 after India's partition.