The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday requested the Supreme Court to adjourn hearing on a petition challenging validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act of 1982, which grants resettlement permit to Pakistani nationals who migrated to Pakistan from the state between 1947 and 1954 after the Partition.

The SC had ordered a stay on the operation of the Act in 2008. Jammu and Kashmir government counsel Shoeb Alam told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi that he should be permitted to circulate a letter for the adjournment of the case. The Bench allowed him to circulate a letter to the parties to the case.

The move to adjourn the case came a day after the Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party (JKNPP) mentioned it for urgent hearing, pointing out that the case had been hanging fire for years.

The JKNPP had challenged the Act through then MLA Harsh Dev Singh. The Act was first challenged by him before the apex court in 1982. In 2001, he filed a petition in the top court against the J&K Resettlement Act.

The JKNPP maintained that people of Jammu and Kashmir, who migrated to Pakistan from 1947, could be considered for their return but their descendants could not be. The party had said that the law passed by the Assembly was draconian, unconstitutional and improper, which threatened the security of the state.

The Supreme Court had, in August 2016, hinted at sending the matter to a Constitution bench. It had said if during the course of proceedings it found that some constitutional issues were involved, it would refer it to a Constitution bench.

The JKNPP had earlier told the court that a division bench in 2008 had issued direction to list the case before a Constitution bench, but the Chief Justice in the same year had overruled the decision and ordered the matter to be listed before a three-judge bench

Courtesy:The Tribune,Dec08,2018