STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice M.M Kumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan on Tuesday issued notices to the Chief Secretary and others in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, (Roshni Act) to be declared as unconstitutional/illegal being ultra-vires the Constitution of India and the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.
The notices have also been issued to Commissioner/Secretary Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Commissioner/Secretary Revenue Department, Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Commissioners of Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar, Srinagar, Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Budgam, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, Leh and Kargil returnable with reply, if any, within four weeks.
The PIL filed by one Ankur Sharma has sought that Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 along with J and K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Rules, 2007 popularly known as ‘Roshni Act’ should be declared ultra-vires of the Constitution of India and the Constitution of the State of J and K and illegal on account of violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens of this State, enshrined under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. It said that legislation could not have been enacted for encroachers of the State land and who were further rewarded with the ownership rights on the pretext of generating the funds for augmenting the hydro electro potential of the State.
The legislation was conceived to reward the violators of law who instead of being booked for grabbing the State land were conferred with the ownership rights and the said law being a unique piece of legislation on the statue book cannot be allowed to sustain in an organised society governed by Rule of Law and thus the impugned legislation being against public policy and constitutional mandate is required to be declared unconstitutional/ultra-vires and the land so regularised in favour of the illegal occupants is required to be retrieved by setting aside all orders of regularisations followed by mutations attested in favour of the illegal occupants/beneficiaries.
Nowhere in this country was such legislation ever enacted to give premium to those who indulged in land grabbing. Looking into the magnitude of the encroachment, the PIL says while urging that the instant petition needs to be allowed by striking down the impugned Act read with the rules made there under.
The PIL also sought disclosure of the names of the illegal occupants/ beneficiaries who have been conferred the benefit of the aforementioned Act which is illegal/ unconstitutional and all such orders of regularisations and consequential mutations attested under the impugned Act be declared void ab-initio/illegal and the State Land so regularised be retrieved from the said illegal occupants/beneficiaries.
The PIL has sought direction to respondents to retrieve the State land measuring 20,46,436 kanals (Twenty lakh forty-six thousand four hundred and thirty six kanals) which is under the illegal occupation of the land mafia and the said encroachment is evident from the reply of the Revenue Department to a Starred A.Q. No.618 tabled by Yash Paul Kundal (MLA) in the J and K State Legislative Assembly also seeking direction the respondents not to issue any further SRO/Notification for extending the date for inviting fresh claims under the impugned Act for conferring ownership rights to the illegal occupants with regard to the left over state land i.e. land measuring 20,46,436 kanals.JNF
