“Not All Hindus Residing In Valley Are Kashmiri Pandits”: High Court

Srinagar:

Each Hindu residing within the Kashmir Valley isn’t a Kashmiri Pandit and can’t get the advantages of particular job schemes meant for members of that particular neighborhood, the Jammu and Kashmir Excessive Courtroom has stated in a latest judgment.

Dismissing a plea looking for to incorporate some Hindu teams and Sikhs into the Prime Minister’s job bundle for Kashmiri Pandits, the court docket stated the focused group is a “individually identifiable neighborhood distinct from different Hindus residing within the Valley like Rajputs, Brahmins aside from Kashmiri Pandits, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and plenty of others,” stated Justice Sanjeev Kumar in his judgment on Tuesday.

The petitioners had argued that different Hindu teams, apart from the Sikh neighborhood, too, had suffered a lot and should be thought-about for advantages just like those prolonged to non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits.

The court docket, nevertheless, stated the argument that they are often grouped collectively as Kashmiri Pandits was “preposterous and can’t be accepted”.

“There is no such thing as a denying the truth that in widespread parlance, Kashmiri Pandit is a neighborhood of Kashmiri-speaking Brahmins residing within the Valley for generations and are distinctly recognized by their gown, customs, and traditions,” the decide stated.

“It’s, thus, tough to just accept the competition of the discovered counsel for the petitioners who’re largely Kshatriyas, Rajputs, Scheduled Caste, non-Kashmiri Brahmins (that they) ought to be handled as Kashmiri Pandits and admitted to the advantages of the Prime Minister’s revised bundle for return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants.”

The one query that continues to be to be decided is whether or not the petitioners, who’re, admittedly, not Kashmiri Pandits however belong to different Hindu castes, may be introduced inside the definition of ‘Kashmiri Pandits’, in response to the judgment.

In 2009, the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had rolled out a Prime Minister’s “bundle” geared toward facilitating the return and rehabilitation in Kashmir Valley of Kashmiri migrants.

Below the scheme, 6,000 authorities jobs have been introduced for migrants Pandits. Whereas 4,000 posts have already been stuffed, 2,000 have been lately marketed by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Choice Board.

Below a revised bundle introduced final 12 months, the federal government reserved the roles for Pandits who haven’t migrated from Kashmir. Such candidates are required to provide certificates of “non-migration” issued by the involved Deputy Commissioners.

The Deputy Commissioners, nevertheless, refused to situation such certificates to non-Kashmiri Pandit Hindus.

The aggrieved teams then filed a petition earlier than the Excessive Courtroom looking for inclusion within the bundle saying it can’t be restricted to just one set of beneficiaries.

The petitioners stated the time period “Kashmiri Pandits”, utilized in SRO 425 of 2017, was huge sufficient to incorporate all non-migrant communities and Hindu castes residing within the Kashmir Valley and have “equally suffered as non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits”.