Three weeks after the High Court order, i.e., on October 31, 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir administration annulled all the activities under the Roshni Act. The State administration has decided to nullify all the mutations, eliminate infringement and retrieve such lands within six months.
On October 9, 2020, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir declared the Roshni Act as unconstitutional and unsustainable. A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal directed a CBI probe into an alleged scam in the land scheme and ordered to file a status report every eight weeks. The court compared the case with the implementation of the 'loot to own' policy.
The order issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, with the endorsement of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha stated, "It is hereby ordered that the Principal Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, shall pass an order declaring all actions taken under the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, as amended from time to time, and rules made thereunder as void ab-initio."
The identities of all the beneficiaries including ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, police officers, businessmen, and so forth, and their relatives or persons holding benami for them, who have inferred advantage under the Act, will be made public within a month's time, as per the order.
The order further stated, "He (the officer) shall ensure that all the mutations done in furtherance of the Roshni Act are annulled. He shall also work out a plan to retrieve the large tracts of State land vested under the Act, 2001 in a time-bound manner. He shall also work out the modalities and plan to evict encroachers from such State land and retrieve it within a period of six months."
Roshni Act: Allegations and Probe
The investigations in the land transfers highlighted the exchange of land in Gulmarg to ineligible beneficiaries. The State Vigilance Organization documented an FIR against several government authorities in 2009 for alleged criminal connivance to wrongfully have and vest ownership of the State land to occupants who didn't meet the criteria under the Roshni Act.
After the 2014 CAG report on the Roshni Act, the then Minister of State for Revenue, Ajaz Ahmad Khan expressed that the CAG discoveries are propelled and strict action will be taken in cases where the provisions of the Roshni Act have not been followed.
In March 2015, the Vigilance Organization finished its investigations and indicated around two dozen officials for purportedly misusing the provisions of the Act.
In November 2018, the High Court restrained all the beneficiaries of the Roshni Act from selling or completing any other transaction regarding the land transferred to them.
Background
The Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, popularly known as the Roshni Act, was enacted under the Dr. Farooq Abdullah administration to procure Rs. 25,000 crore by transferring 20 lakh kanals of State land to existing occupants against instalment at market rates. The cut-off year for the infringement of the state land was set as 1990. The government said the revenue generated would be spent on commissioning hydroelectric power projects in the state, hence the name “Roshni”.
In the year 2005, the PDP-Congress administration of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed relaxed the cut-off year to 2004. Under the Ghulam Nabi Azad tenure, the relaxation in the cut-off year was 2007. Also, proprietorship rights of agricultural lands were given to farmers occupying it for free with a documentation expense of Rs 100 per kanal.
According to the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in 2014, only Rs. 76 crores had been realised from the exchange of encroached land between 2007 and 2013, against the targetted Rs. 25,000 crore. The report additionally stated that the subjective decrease in costs fixed by the standing committee was done to benefit government officials and affluent individuals.
| Do you know? On November 28, 2018, the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by the then LG of Jammu and Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik repealed the Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, popularly known as 'Roshni Act', as it failed to realise the desired objectives and there were also reports of misuse of some its provisions. However, the actions which were already taken under the repealed Act were not rendered invalid. |
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