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| DPs of PoK challenge Roshni Act | | HC issues notice with directions to Government | |
JAMMU, APRIL 04-
Justice Nirmal Singh of J&K High Court Jammu Wing today in a much publicized Roshni Act, which was challenged by the refugees of 1947, has issued notice to state of J&K through Chief Secretary, Law Department and Provincial Rehabilitation Officer Jammu returnable within two weeks.
Justice Singh, after hearing Advocates Ajay Sharma, Amit Gupta and Akshay Anand appearing for the petitioner organization known as R-47, directed the respondents that any regularization under the Roshni Act will be subject to the outcome of writ petition.
This significant order was passed in a writ petition filed by one Balraj Bakshi claiming to be a President of an organization of refugees of 1947. The petitioner in his petition submitted that in 1947, 30,000 Muslim families migrated from Jammu to Pakistan leaving behind 15, 00, 035 kanals of agriculture land. The total number of families, which migrated from POK are 31, 619, of these 21, 116 families have settled in Jammu Division and the total land allotted to them is 6, 53, 623 kanals, which includes 6, 11, 133 kanals of Evacuee Property and 24,500 kanals of State land.
In the petition it is stated that the J&K State has passed an Act called the Jammu & Kashmir State Lands (vesting of ownership to the occupants) Act 2001 and another Act J&K State Land amendment Act 2004. Advocate Akshay Anand during the course of arguments pointed out that as per section 8(2) of the impugned Act, a person who is in unauthorized possession of state land up to 100 kanals, is being regularized in avour of the said persons, where as the state has filed an affidavit before the National Human Rights Commission that no land is available with the state to be allotted to the displaced persons of 1947 and challenged the vires of the Act of being unconstitutional and arbitrary and further said that the scale has been fixed in an arbitrary manner and there is no basis for fixing such high scale for the state land as it will encourage the big land-mafias to acquire state land forcibly knowingly that it will be regularized under the Roshni Act. The petitioners’ council alleged that more than 20 lakh Kanals of state land encroached by vested interest is being regularized under the garb of the Roshni Act, while the displaced persons of POK need only about 6 lakh kanals of state land for fulfilling their deficiency. So unless the deficiency of displaced persons of POK is fulfilled, no state land can be regularized in favour of any person under the Roshni Act and seeking quashment of the said Act. |
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