Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 14: High Court took serious note of mentioning ‘State of J&K’ instead of “UT of J&K’ in an official document issued with regard to land acquisition for the purpose of road widening.
Justice Rahul Bharti while reading the notification challenged by the land owner said a reading of this notification which is in the Government Gazette of India, is nothing but an embarrassment of sort wherein reference in 2023 to the Jammu and Kashmir is being given as the State of Jammu & Kashmir which entity actually ceased to exist with coming into being of the Jammu & Kashmir Re-Organization Act, 2019.
“This error of mention with respect to Jammu & Kashmir as a State instead of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is a reflection of absent mindedness on the part of Statutory Authority framing the notification”, Justice Bharti said.
The court while registering its serious displeasure and disapproval for an error committed while issuing the notification left it with the Government of India and its concerned Ministry to ponder upon the quality of application of mind of its officials in conducting the affairs of the Union of India vis-à-vis Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The officials did not stop here, thereafter another S.O. No. 1725 came to be supplemented by a notification issued in terms of S.O 1667 (E) dated 10th April, 2024 with an intent to cover up the error with respect to mention of Jammu & Kashmir as State but continuing the error by repeating State of Jammu & Kashmir by adding UT in brackets.
“This is nothing but compounding the error on the part of the author of the two notifications. In S.O. No. 1725 with respect to village Bumhama District Kupwara, different khasra numbers are falling for acquisition”, reads the court order.
The court has directed for providing the copy of order to the Deputy Solicitor General of India for the sake of conveying the concern of this court to the concerned authorities in the Ministry to ensure that the errors as pointed above are not repeated particularly in the matter of issuance of statutory notifications.
With regard to dealing with the actual issue as raised in the petition, the court considering the matter for any relief deemed it appropriate to direct Tehsildar Dragmulla/ Bumhama District Kupwara to come up with the requisite revenue record particularly the map prepared which facilitated as the basis for issuance of the aforesaid two notifications.
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