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Roshni Act: Punish illegal land grabbers, top court tells HC
The SC asked the HC to decide pleas seeking a review of Oct 9 verdict that scrapped the Act that conferred rights on the occupants of the state land.
The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that those who have illegally grabbed government land in Jammu and Kashmir under the 2001 Roshni Act should be punished and that the court will not come in the way of prosecution.
“If anybody grabs the land illegally, they should be punished and we won’t come in your way,” remarked the SC bench headed by justice NV Ramana, as it heard a clutch of petitions against the J&K high court order of cancelling all proprietary rights and allotments under the contentious law.
At the same time, the proceedings in the top court fetched reprieve for 68 petitioners, including J&K former finance minister Haseeb A Drabu and former chief secretary Mohammed Shafi Pandit, after the administration assured that no adverse steps shall be taken against them till the bench hears the matter again in January.
The Supreme Court asked the high court to decide pleas seeking a review of the October 9 verdict that scrapped the Act that conferred proprietary rights on the occupants of the state land.
The petitioners before the top court include former power development commissioner Nissar Hussain, former chief conservator of forest RK Mattoo, former judge Khaliq-ul-Zaman, businessmen Bharat Malhotra and Vikas Khanna, and retired commissioner Bashir Ahmed.
The Roshni Act provided for transferring proprietary titles to occupants of government land in lieu of a fee, paving way for regularisation of encroachments on public land and simultaneously generating resources to fund power projects in J&K – hence, the name “Roshni”.
The petitioners in SC have challenged the October 9 order of the HC, which declared all proprietary rights transferred under the Act as illegal, and directed the UT administration to recover the land. It ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged corruption and unauthorised usurpation of the public land.
On Thursday, the J&K administration submitted in the SC that it was committed to protecting landless cultivators and genuine allottees who might have been affected by the HC order of declaring the 2001 Roshni Act null and void.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the administration, also assured the court that there will not be any adverse or coercive action against the petitioners, most of whom, he added, appear to be bonafide allottees.
On its part, the bench pointed out that review petitions against the adverse order were yet to be decided by the HC and hence, the apex court would want to wait for their outcome.
The bench, however, also took note of the chief grievance by the petitioners that even though there was no finding on any illegality against their lawful occupation of the land, sweeping observations by the HC could lead to cancellation of their leasehold rights apart from making them subjects of CBI investigations. “We are only saying those affected should get a chance to be heard by some forum,” the bench told Mehta.
In response, the SG submitted that the J&K administration has itself sought a review of the HC order in its bid to classify between the genuine occupants and fraudulent ones, and the matter will be heard by the HC.
