Ishfaq Tantry

The J&K High Court has quashed the government order which had extended special employment benefits under the Prime Minister’s package to Kashmri Pandit youth who did not migrate from the Valley after November 1989 when militancy broke out in the region.

The court directed that all posts created in pursuance to the Prime Minister’s package for the return and rehabilitation of migrant Kashmiri Pandits are required to be filled up as per the rules of 2009 and in no other manner.

In October 2017, the PDP-BJP coalition government had issued a special ordinance SR0-425 to amend the migrant recruitment rules of 2009 to carry out a special recruitment drive for the unemployed Kashmri Pandit youth who did not leave the Valley.

Subsequently, the government had also constituted a committee for giving benefits of employment to the Pandit youth in terms of SR0-425.

However, in December 2016, both the SRO and the order to constitute the committee were challenged by unemployed Sikh youth from Kashmir by filing a petition before the High Court, arguing that the Sikh community also deserved benefits of this amendment.

“I do not find the impugned government order of November 2017 sustainable in law, for the same has the effect of modifying the statutory rules, which is impermissible. All posts created in pursuance to the Prime Minister’s package for the return and rehabilitation are required to be filled as per the rules of 2009 and in no other manner,” a single-judge Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar said in its judgment on Thursday.

“I find no merit in the petition so far as challenge to the vires of SRO-425 dated October 10, 2017, is concerned and the same is accordingly rejected. However, the impugned government order of November 2017 is held unsustainable in law and is accordingly quashed. The respondents may proceed in the matter in accordance with law,” the bench said while disposing of the matter.

Courtesy:The Tribune,15,2019