Author:
Publication: Vigilonline.com
Date: January 18, 2011
URL: http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1485&Itemid=1
Intro: Centre Assures Court All House Auctions
Will Be Declared Illegal
The Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over inertia of the Jammu and
Kashmir government to implement rehabilitation packages for Kashmiri Pandits
who fled the Valley in the aftermath of insurgency. It asked the state to
take firm action to ameliorate their condition.
"Tell us what have you (state government)
done with your promise of providing 15,000 jobs? Have you given a single job?
Or, for that matter, have you given them a single house," asked a threejudge
bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia on Monday. We don't want to go by
your dream proposals, but want some firm action".
It was hearing a petition filed by the All
India Kashmiri Samaj and others alleging neither the state government nor
the Centre was addressing grievances of Kashmiri Pandits who have been suffering
for over two decades.
The court asked the state government to furnish
data on steps taken to ameliorate the plight of Pandits. It asked the state
to explain whether the government had set aside even a single sale of house
as illegal since hundreds of houses between 1990-1997 belonging to Pandits
had been auctioned and sold illegally after the victims fled the Valley.
"Can you show us even one instance where
you have set aside the sale and given it back to the victim." The bench
granted four weeks to the state government to explain it.
Earlier, the court had sought a response from
the state government on 1,618-crore special package offered by Centre for
restoring properties and providing jobs to migrant Pandits. It also expressed
reservations over the Centre's scheme saying it was not clear as to how the
migrants on return will stay without any accommodation.
"Where will people who want to go back
stay? Now, their properties have been sold or auctioned. There are number
of petitions pending in the High Court. How will they go? Without house, how
can people go back to Jammu and Kashmir," the bench asked.
Additional Solicitor-General Indira Jaising
on behalf of the Centre, however, assured the court that properties auctioned
between 1990 to 1997 would be declared "illegal" and would be "restored"
to owners. "All those auctions are illegal and they will be cancelled,"
she had said. According to the Centre, 12.5 crore has already been allocated
to the state government for providing transit housing to the migrants.
