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J&K Resettlement Act stayed
By Our Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI, FEB. 1. The Supreme Court today stayed the implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act, 1982, providing for the resettlement of all those persons who had migrated to Pakistan after March 1947, if they returned to Kashmir on a permanent basis. A Bench comprising Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Justice S. N. Phukan, granted interim stay of the Act on two writ petitions filed by the Panther's Party president, Bhim Singh and another, challenging the Constitutional validity of the Act, on the ground that if the Act was implemented it would result in ``chaos and pose a threat to country's defence and security''.
The Bench granted two weeks time to the J&K Government to file a reply after the Centre supported the stand of the petitioners that the Act would facilitate the entry of terrorists into J&K where over 50,000 people had fallen victims to militant activities and prima facie the Act was ultra vires the Constitution.
The petitioners argued that the 1982 Act was being challenged, as, after the Constitution Bench of the apex court ``returned unanswered'' the `Presidential reference' of the related Bill in this regard, the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, had announced that the State would implement the Act. They submitted that the Chief Minister's announcement had caused apprehensions in the minds of the people of the State that this Act would be misused by militants and terrorists to settle here permanently.
They said that if the Act was implemented, more than two lakh Pakistanis might enter the State and settle here. Even Talibans who had been driven out of Afghanistan with fraudulent certificates could settle in the State. They sought declaration that the Act was illegal, and ultra vires the basic structure of the Constitution and prayed for quashing of the same. On behalf of the Union Government it was submitted that implementation of the Act would result in large number of aliens returning to India which was not permissible under the Citizenship Act.
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