Ankur Sharma advocate, who had challenged the constitutional validity of the Roshni Act and sought handing over all the cases of irregularities in land transfers to CBI, said that “desperate, insincere attempts of the government in getting the matter decided today bore no fruits’’.
The court had on Tuesday brought forward the date of hearing in the review petition to December 11 after the administration cited urgency in its review petition challenging the high court’s judgement. The CBI is currently investigating into irregularities in the land transfers made under the law.
Additional Advocate General Aseem Sawhney, through an urgent hearing motion, had on Tuesday told the court that the matter needed urgent court intervention as poor and landless people who had also benefited under the Act will be facing the heat along with wealthy and influential people.“We are implementing the Roshni judgment and there is absolutely no issue with regard to that, but at the same time th
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. | PTI
The Jammu and Kashmir government seems to have had a change of heart on the controversial Roshni Act. In October, it had announced it would start retrieving thousands of acres of land distributed under the Act, soon after the legislation was struck down by the court. But on December 4, the government filed a petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, asking it to reconsider its decision. “Roshni Act” is the popular name for the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting Ownership to the Occupants) Act. Passed in 2001, the law was supposed to grant ownership rights to the occupants of state land for a fee decided by the government. Proceeds from these transactions were to fund power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, hence the moniker, Roshni Act.