People’s Conference to move SC against police verification process in J&K
If Supreme Court views bulldozing properties as collective punishment, then withholding a police verification certificate for a family based on a relative’s record is no different: PC chief Sajjad Lone.
Buoyed by the Supreme Court judgment against ‘bulldozer justice’, the People’s Conference led by Sajjad Lone on Thursday announced that it would also approach the apex court against the police verification process in Jammu and Kashmir as it punishes families instead of the individual concerned.
The party as well as its president responded on X after the Supreme Court on Wednesday set down comprehensive guidelines against arbitrary demolitions in certain states, including Uttar Pradesh, underscoring that the rule of law and due process must be strictly adhered to.
“Encouraged by the bulldozer judgment where the Supreme Court clearly ruled that it is a collective punishment against the family, the JKPC will approach the Supreme Court with a plea that the system of police verification in Jammu and Kashmir is a more chronic and serious case of collective punishment against the family,” the statement said.
“That in the name of national security, the law of natural justice is violated,” the party said.
Stricter norms over five years
A Supreme Court bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan held that demolitions could not be used as punitive measures against those accused or convicted of crimes, emphasising that shelter is a fundamental right and must not be taken away without following the due process. The judgment also noted that it amounts to collective punishment against the family.
In the past five years in J&K, police verification for government jobs and passports has become stricter with people allegedly getting adverse reports if their relatives have been associated with militancy. In the recently concluded J&K assembly session, legislators like the Congress’s Nizamuddin Bhat and PC’s Sajjad Lone raised the issue of police verifications and the need for its review.
‘Kashmir-specific stone-age justice’
Lone pointed out on X that the Supreme Court has called the (bulldozer justice) collective punishment against the family. “An adverse police verification certificate because a relative has an adverse police record is also a collective punishment against the family. Kashmir-specific ‘stone-age justice’,” he said.
Recently, Srinagar member of Parliament and National Conference leader Ruhullah Mehdi had written to chief minister Omar Abdullah to prioritise the easing of the verification process.
Mehdi, in a letter, said that verification processes were “overly harsh”. “The existing verification procedures often penalise individuals for actions they did not commit. This procedure should be reconsidered to ensure they are fair and just for all applicants,” he wrote.
Keeping poll promise
In his party’s election manifesto, Lone had also promised working against the “practice of Kashmiris being blacklisted by security agencies, which bars them from getting jobs, passports and government contracts”.
A former separatist from north Kashmir, Lone joined politics by contesting the parliamentary elections in 2009 and ultimately formed his own political party. In the recent elections, his party won just one seat in the 90-member assembly.