Srinagar: The J&K High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) has dropped a paragraph from the constitution of the lawyers’ body that called for “working towards a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute” after its registration renewal was put on hold and its elections were barred.
It is pertinent to mention that days after administration barred J&K High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) from holding any elections, citing their “anti-India and pro-secessionist” ideology, the J&K and Ladakh High Court recognized a new lawyers’ body in Kashmir, the Kashmir Advocates Association (KAA), by exercising powers under Section 58 of the Bar Council, which was extended to J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The fresh amendment in the Bar’s constitution has come five years after the District Magistrate, in a formal letter in 2020, sought an explanation on a paragraph found in the objectives of the Bar under its erstwhile constitution. It stated, among its objectives, that the Bar “will find ways and means and take steps for resolving the issues concerning the public at large including the larger issue of a peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute”.
The District Magistrate, while referring to the Bar’s constitution, had pointed out that it was “not in consonance with the Constitution of India, whereby J&K is an integral part of the country and not a dispute”.
“It’s to inform you that misgivings you harbour regarding conducting of elections for JKHCBA, Kashmir, are unfounded and/or lopsided and/or ipsi dixit. The JKHCBA is on record to have sufficiently conveyed to you, in the past, its response to obviate such misgivings that sans suppression,” reads the Bar’s letter of July 5, forwarded by the secretary of the JKHCBA’s election commission, notifying the latest change in its constitution.
In its letter, the Bar pointed out that “some changes in the constitution of the JKHCBA, Kashmir, also became necessary (after the Supreme Court judgment on Article 370 provisions on December 23, 2023) and, accordingly, were brought about”.
“It is not naysaid that JKHCBA was one amongst many political, social and non-governmental organisations, recognised under law, who had invoked jurisdiction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court against the constitutional changes that had taken place in August 2019,” the Bar’s letter added.
The J&K Lieutenant Governor’s administration has declined permission to the JKHCBA to hold elections over the past five years citing different reasons, including fears related to law and order, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its latest order, issued in June this year, the District Magistrate of Srinagar pointed to the Bar’s past activities and described it as “an unregistered association/body” having “secessionist ideology”.
However, In the letter of July 5, the Bar said: “The JKHCBA is as old as the High Court of J&K...and have worked hand in glove to promote the legal justice system of our country. Each one has held each other in high regard over the period and have exchanged their members as necessary concomitant.”
“Demonising and maligning such an Association and/or characterising it being illegal/unregistered after hundred years of its existence, therefore, is highly unacceptable and that too if the opinion is founded on heresy and motivation,” it said.