After ‘coup’, premises allotted to Kashmir Press Club taken back

The government said that it wanted to avoid a law and order situation after “rival groups levelled various allegations against each other”. Premises handed over back to the estates department

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Monday cancelled the allotment of building and land to the Kashmir Press Club, two days after the building was taken over by a small group of journalists, flanked by the police.

Media personnel assemble outside the Kashmir Press Club building after the J&K administration took back the premises, in Srinagar on Monday. (PTI)

The government said that it wanted to avoid a law and order situation after “rival groups levelled various allegations against each other”. The premises have been handed over back to the estates department.

The government had faced criticism after the takeover of the KPC premises by a group of journalists led by M Salim Pandit and accompanied by armed policemen on Saturday. The Editors Guild of India termed the move a ‘coup’ while former chief minister’s Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti went on to tag it as a ‘state sponsored coup’.

“…The rival groups have been levelling various allegations against each other also with regard to the use of the premises belonging to the estates department that was being used for the legitimate use of the members of the journalistic fraternity. In view of this aspect of the dispute and in view of the reports in social media and other sources indicating a potential law and order situation, including a threat of breach of peace and the safety of bonafide journalists, an intervention has become necessary,” the government said in a statement issued through the information department.

Although the 2-year-term of 11-member executive and management body of the 300-member strong club, which was elected in 2019, had ended last year in July, fresh elections could not be conducted since the club itself had to be registered again. The re-registration certificate which was issued on December 29, was suspended again on January 13.

Nine journalists’ bodies of Kashmir, including the elected Kashmir Press Club body, had termed the takeover as “illegal and arbitrary”. The head of the ‘disgruntled’ group, Salim Pandit, said that the term of the present press club had expired in July and the club was in a “mess”.

The government statement said that KPC as a registered body has ceased to exist and its managing body too has come to a legal closure on July 14, 2021, the date on which its tenure came to an end.

“In its failure to register itself under the central Societies of Registration Act, further compounded by its failure to hold elections to constitute a new managing body, some individuals of the erstwhile club have been committing illegalities on several counts, least of which are false portrayal of being owner-managers of an entity which is no longer in legal vogue,” it said.

It said that in view of the “dissensions between various groups of journalists, it has been decided that the allotment of the premises at Polo View in view of the now deregistered Kashmir Press Club be cancelled and control of land and buildings situated at Polo View Srinagar which belongs to the Estates Department be reverted back to the said Department”.

“The government is committed to a free and fair press…and also hopes that a duly registered bona fide society of all journalists shall be constituted as soon as possible and the same shall be able to approach the government for reallocation of the premises,” the statement said.