JAMMU: Seeking shifting of NIT from Srinagar to any other part of the country, replacement of faculty, punishment to the Jammu and Kashmir Police officials involved in “brutal lathi-charge” on the non-local students of NIT and failure to provide an environment of safety and security, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed on Tuesday in the Jammu Wing of J&K High Court by Prof. Hari Om.
The PIL also sought directions to the respondents to ensure foolproof safety of the students at NIT Srinagar sans Jammu and Kashmir Police, to ensure freedom of celebration of national, religious functions and festivals, also seeking direction to the respondents to ensure free and fearless movement of the students of NIT Srinagar.
Prof Hari Om’s PIL further sought direction from restraining the respondents especially Chairman University Grants Commission not to conduct any examination of the students at NIT, Srinagar till the time their safety and liberty is restored.
The Bench, comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, after hearing Sr. Advocate B.S Salathia, Advocate S.S Lehar and Advocate Ravinder Sharma appearing for the PIL, reserved for orders.
In the PIL, the petitioner has been espousing the issues of public importance at various forums for more than two decades.
“Needless to mention that the petitioner has been espousing the cause of the public at large at different forums from time to time. He has no personal interest in filing the preset petition. The petition is being filed keeping in view the interest of the public at large and protect the legitimate interests of the non-local students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar who are bonafide Indian nationals”, the PIL stated.
It added, “To leave them in the lurch or to the care of certain vested interests in and outside the UGC/HRD Ministry-run and managed institute would be the negation of justice system and India is a Welfare State.
The key role of the Government in a democratic country like India is protection and well-being of its citizens, irrespective of caste, colour, creed and regional dimension, which includes a peaceful and secure environment and a life free from any threat endangering their lives under whatever pretext. In a democracy like India and militant and terrorist-infested region like Kashmir, Government has to become more vigilant and take strict measures to safeguard the larger public interest by protecting the lives of its citizens and ensuring an environment that is conducive for pursuing their studies.
In the PIL, it has been further submitted that after the rise of secessionism in Kashmir Valley since 1987 the Valley has virtually become unsafe for certain sections of society and that several lakh people professing a particular faith quit the Valley in early 1990. The situation has not improved a bit since then. The situation has actually deteriorated with certain undesirable elements organizing anti-national events in parts of the Valley on almost daily basis and creating in the NIT a situation that has forced over 1,500 non-local students of the institute to get a foolproof security cover under the direct superintendence of Central paramilitary forces, demand shifting of the institute out of the Valley or leave their studies midway as they are mortally afraid of a threat to their life and limb.
Systematic efforts have been made to destroy secular and democratic values, including brotherhood and peaceful co-existence by senseless violence fuelled by fanatics and extremists, who are aided, abetted and indoctrinated by forces across the India’s borders with a view to annexing Kashmir and giving a particular type of orientation to the Kashmiri polity and society.
Terrorism has taken away the lives of countless innocent men, women and children; besides, the terrorists indulging in abduction, rape, murder, arson, extortion and looting.
Government officials, political leaders and workers, members of judiciary, print and electronic presspersons and prominent citizens have been threatened, attacked and even killed. Religious “codes of conduct” has been imposed on common people and there has been large scale destruction of public and private property, including over 400 State-run and private schools and temples and shrines. The people of the minority community had to flee their homes in the valley and today they live like refugees in Jammu province and other parts of country. This is the one “fall-out” of the proxy-war that engulfed Kashmir and some of its adjoining areas in the late eighties. It is this well-calculated and ruthlessly planned onslaught on the innocents — all in the name of so-called “Azadi” (independence) — that constitutes the complete negation of the human rights”.