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| Kashmiri Pandit family’s 12 year old struggle to get back their house fails to bear fruit till date | | Illegal occupant enjoys at the cost of injustice to aggrieved family | |  Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 24: For the past 12 and half years a Kashmiri Pandit family has been running from pillar to post that their house illegally occupied by a person is handed over to them. Despite issuance of relevant orders the same is yet to happen.
On November 12, 2007 then Deputy Commissioner Srinagar issued an order to Tehsildar South Srinagar to take over the possession of a house belonging to a Kashmiri Pandit family. The house located in the Habba Kadal area was illegally occupied by a person of majority community.
“The non-applicant failed to attend the Court of undersigned to defend the case on his behalf, it seems that the non-applicant is not interested in finalizing the case. As such you are directed to take over the possession of the house and land beneath the said house on behalf of the District Magistrate Srinagar under the provisions of J&K Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restrained on Distress Sales) Act, 1997 till further orders,” reads the order DMS/RD-556/Mig/704 dated 12-11-2007.
The applicant referred to in the application is B K Kandhari with the non-applicant being Muzaffar Ahmad Lori. The order was issued in context of J&K Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restrained on Distress Sales) Act, 1997. The house has been occupied by one Mohammad Amin Kawa.
Once this order was passed it was expected that the house would be taken over by the district administration, but that was not to be. For years together there was no action with the aggrieved family being forced to knock at the doors of the judiciary. Following the order of a court Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Srinagar got activated in November last year and issued an order.
“Kindly refer to your office letter No. 475/M/TS dated 23-07-2019, regarding the subject cited above. In the context, it is intimated that the case has been rejected under the provisions of Order and Rule II (d) of CPC, by the 3rd Additional Munsiff Srinagar,” reads the order DCS/SQ/Misc/7265/(1549) dated 05-11-2019 issued by Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Srinagar.
The order further reads, “You are accordingly directed to take appropriate necessary action under the relevant provisions of law and furnish action taken report to this office within a week’s time positively.” The order was addressed to Tehsildar South, Srinagar and the subject cited is the illegal encroachment of the house of Kandharis at Habba Kadal by Mohammad Amin Kawa.
On November 14, 2019, Tehsildar South Srinagar in his correspondence to Personal Private Secretary to Divisional Commissioner Kashmir wrote, “I am to submit that Naib Tehsildar Kothi Bagh along with field staff and police personals visited the spot on 13-11-2019 to implement orders of worthy Divisional Commissioner Kashmir but due to non absence of shopkeeper namely Mohammad Amin Kawa eviction of encroachment was not made, however encroachment in shape of a shop was sealed by way of sealing its fixed locks.”
In the meantime, Kawa moved an application with the High Court hoping that his illegal act would be legalized. However, his counsel sought the court’s permission to withdraw the petition and file appropriate petition before appropriate forum under the J&K Migrant Immovable (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997. Justice Sanjeev Kumar on 10-12-2019 paid heed to the request and dismissed the petition as prayed by the petitioner through his advocate.
Kawa also moved an application in the court of Justice Tashi Rabstan seeking that the impugned order passed on an earlier date be kept in abeyance as the same according to him was done in his absence. The court passed the direction that impugned order should not be acted upon subject to objections till next date of hearing that was fixed as March 18, 2020. The case could not be taken up on scheduled date following the outbreak of Corona Virus.
It would be in place to mention here that in accordance with the provisions of IPC Section 188- disobedience of an order promulgated by an official authorized to do so (here Deputy Commissioner is authorized under the Migrant Property Act to evict a trespasser and seal the premise) is punishable under the law with imprisonment up to six months.
The DC has just to act according to law to at least throw out the illegal occupant. Moreover, as per the revised instruction to the administration from Ministry of Home Affairs the District Commissioners are supposed to take suo motto action in such cases. Neither of the two provisions has been invoked in this particular case. |
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