The Supreme Court on Wednesday took exception to the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s stand in a case against the Resettlement Act of 1982 — which allows migrants from Pakistan to return as permanent residents – after the state administration sought adjournment yet again on the ground that the state was under the President’s rule.

“How can you say there is no government in the state? Does the Constitution envisage such a situation?” said a Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, rejecting the state’s adjournment plea.

The state’s counsel clarified that he never said there was no government and that he only said there was no elected government and the state was under the President’s rule. The state has maintained that it was a sensitive issue and needed to be dealt with in a sensible manner.

The bench said it would give a date for hearing “in chamber”.

The Jammu and Kashmir Government had told the Supreme Court on Monday that it has not received any application for resettlement under the Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act, 1982, which allows grant of resettlement permit to Pakistani nationals who migrated to that country from the state between 1947 and 1954 after the Partition

The “competent authority” envisaged under Section 2(a) of the J&K Grant of Permit for Resettlement (or Permanent Return to) the State Act, 1982, was never notified by the state government. As such, no application could be received under the Act,” the state government said in an affidavit filed in the top court. No application was ever even by the Custodian of Evacuee Property, it added.

The Supreme Court – which is seized of a PIL filed by the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) against the Act in 2001 — had ordered a stay on the operation of the Act in 2008.

Last month, it had asked the state government to furnish details of the number of applications it had received from original migrants from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan expressing their intent to resettle in India.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had supported the PIL, saying permitting resettlement of descendants of those who had migrated to Pakistan in 1947 from Jammu and Kashmir was fraught with serious security implications and would go against the Citizenship Act. The Panthers Party challenged the Act

Courtesy:The Tribune,Jan10,2019