‘They have given their blood – You give them a Home in J&K’ Part-V;J&K must take to social, moral duties towards martyrs

By Daya Sagar
In the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution (that has its origin in the Indian Constitution) the term ‘State Subject of Jammu & Kashmir’ as was in vogue during pre-independence days of Maharaja Hari Singh’s times was adopted in a modified form as Permanent Resident of J&K (among other things Section-6 of J&K Constitution says: “In this section, the expression “State Subject of Class I or of Class II” shall have the same meaning as in State Notification No. 1?L/84 dated the 20th April, 1927, read with State Notification No. 13/L dated the27 June, 1932″ ). And the other relevant features of Section-6 that very much concern the subject discussed herein are: Permanent residents – (1) Every person who is, or is deemed to be a citizen of India under the provisions of the Constitution of India shall be permanent resident of the State, if on the fourteenth day of May, 1954- (a) he was a State Subject of Class-I or Class-II; OR (b) having lawfully acquired immovable property in the State, he has been ordinarily resident in the State for not less than ten years prior to that date;. The origin of sub-section 6-1(b) in a way lies in provision of Class-III State subject of Hari Singh’s time that said : “Class-III: All persons, other than those belonging to Class-I and Class-II permanently residing within the State, who have acquired under rayatnama any immovable property therein or who may hereafter acquire such property under an Izazatnama and may execute a rayatnama after ten years continuous residence therein”. So, it will not be wrong to say that the provision was adopted in a miser manner and the J&K Governments & Legislatures of post 1947 times have been not fair to the provisions as laid down in Section – 7 ( ” Construction of references to the State Subjects in existing laws – unless the context otherwise requires, all references in any existing law to hereditary State Subjects or to State Subject of Class-I or Class-II or of Class-Ill shall be construed as references to the permanent residents of the State.), Section-8 (“Legislature to define permanent residents- Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this part shall derogate from the power of the State Legislature to make any law defining the classes of person who are, or shall be permanent residents of the State.”) and Section-9 ( “Special provision for Bills relating to permanent residents – A Bill making provision for any of the following matters, namely- a) defining or altering the definition of the classes of persons who are, or shall be permanent residents of the State; b) conferring on permanent residents any special rights or privileges; c) regulating or modifying any special rights or privileges enjoyed by permanent residents;}.
Hence in spite of there being available provisions for extending special gestures towards the Indian citizens belonging to states other than Indian state of J&K who have been making even supreme sacrifices for the security and safety of the Indian citizens who fall in the category of Permanent Residents of J&K it has been so disappointing that the “State of J&K” has remained unconcerned for such like social and moral duties towards the society.…. Continued
(Daya Sagar is a Senior journalist and a social activist dayasagr45 @yahoo.com)