E-Paper
Consider a policy for rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits: HC to Haryana
The court was hearing a bunch of pleas from Kashmiri Pandits, who were in high court on non-inclusion of their names in the draw of lot to be held by Haryana government for the allotment of residential plots to displaced Pandits in Bahadurgarh
The Punjab and Haryana high court has asked Haryana government to consider a policy for rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, who had to leave their homes due to terrorism in 90s.
“ ...persons displaced from Pakistan in 1947 were rehabilitated by the Government of India in different districts of the then composite Punjab with property allotted to them in terms of the property left behind by them in Pakistan, on verified claims. Hence, the government of Haryana may look into the issue from that angle to rehabilitate the Kashmiri Pandits who were displaced from their ancestral homes in the Valley due to terrorism,” the bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh and Justice Lalit Batra observed, requesting the state government to have a relook at the entire issue, “looking at the plight of those who have genuinely suffered loss of their homes at the hands of terrorists in the hill state more than 30 years ago and are continuing to suffer on account of no clear title to their homes”.
The court was hearing a bunch of pleas from Kashmiri Pandits, who were in high court on non-inclusion of their names in the draw of lot to be held by Haryana government for the allotment of residential plots to Kashmiri Pandits in Bahadurgarh.
For 30 years, the matter of allotting plots to them has been hanging fire. As per their lawyer Padam Kant Dwivedi, the land in question bought by the Kashmiri Pandits was acquired by the government in 1995 and released back to HSVP in 1997. But, they have not been given physical possession, he added. Necessary formalities were completed and cases of 150 odd applicants were cleared, but in case of 36 persons, their names were dropped from the draw of lots process to be held on April 6, due to technical reasons, it was stated.
On April 5, the high court had directed Haryana to allow draw of lots in the case of genuine Kashmiri Pandits, which took place on Wednesday.
In the detailed order released on Wednesday, the court has asked Haryana that allotment of plots be not finalised and government may come up with a “concrete policy”. It has also sought to explain as to why the state government is linking mutation of plots purchased by these “unfortunately displaced” persons, to allotment of other plots. The plots that they had originally purchased are stated to have been acquired, but subsequently were agreed to be released subject to their title being transferred to the HSVP by the buyers, the court observed.
