Srinagar, Feb 21 — Hundreds of printed legal and administrative publications rendered redundant after Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional reorganisation in 2019 are being processed for auction, the government has informed the Legislative Assembly.
In a written reply placed before the House, the government said a large stock of books and manuals had been declared “obsolete” following the repeal of Article 370 and the transition of the former State into a Union Territory, which brought sweeping legal and administrative changes.
According to official data shared with legislators, the outdated material identified over the past five years includes 47 copies of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir (Volume D), 16 copies of the Jail Manual, 159 copies of the Law Supplement 2010, and 784 copies of the Law Supplement 2011.
The list also includes 32 copies of the old Budget Manual and a substantial number of Law Volumes (6th Edition, Volumes I to X), with 1,689 copies of each volume reported as no longer in use.
Officials said many of these publications lost relevance after central laws were extended to the Union Territory and earlier state-specific statutes were repealed, amended, or replaced. The scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s separate Constitution, in particular, rendered several legal volumes redundant.
The government said an Auction Committee has been constituted to dispose of the outdated and damaged records “in accordance with prescribed rules and procedures,” following verification and compliance with financial and administrative norms governing government property.
The exercise forms part of the broader administrative transition after 2019 reorganisation, as departments update reference material to reflect the current legal framework and systematically weed out legacy publications tied to the former state structure.