New Delhi, Mar 17: The Jammu and Kashmir administration told the Supreme Court that state laws, which had led to setting up of commissions like human rights committee, have now been repealed and some fresh panels were set up under central statutes after the abrogation of Article 370.
An affidavit to this effect was filed by the Union territory administration before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud hearing a PIL alleging non-functional statutory panels in Jammu and Kashmir, including the human rights commission, after the state was made a union territory.
“It is submitted that with the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, the statues stated in the third column (state laws which governed various panels of erstwhile state) … have been repealed. In view of the said position, the government of Jammu and Kashmir passed several government orders (GOs) by which sanction was accorded to the winding up of the commissions established under the said repealed statutes,” the affidavit filed by Achal Sethi, Secretary of the Department of Law and Justice of Jammu and Kashmir, said.
During the brief hearing on Friday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Jammu and Kashmir, told the bench, also comprising justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, that like other union territories, central panels like National Human Rights Commission and the Central Information Commission (CIC) would cater to Jammu and Kashmir as well.
The bench inquired about whether such panels have evolved any mechanism to ensure access to the citizens belonging to the union territory.