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The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh refused to allow a petition that sought inclusion of all Kashmiri Non-Migrant Hindus for appointments against the quota of jobs exclusively provided for Kashmiri Non-Migrant Pandits in the year 2020 under the Prime Minister’s Package.

Refusing to accept such a broad definition of “Kashmiri Pandits”, the bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar held that, "It is difficult to accept the contention that the petitioners, who are mostly Kshatriyas, Rajputs, Scheduled Caste non- Kashmiri Brahmins etc. etc. should be treated as Kashmiri Pandits."

The court said,

“Kashmiri Pandits, is a separately identifiable community distinct from other Hindus residing in the Valley like Rajputs, Brahmins other than Kashmiri Pandits, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and many others.”

While carrying a recruitment drive, in December 2020, an advertisement for filling up 1997 posts was issued by the respondent government. The special recruitment drive was part of a 2009 PM’s package for return and rehabilitation to Kashmiri migrants in Kashmir Valley. The advertisement was also open for the Kashimiri Pandits who had not migrated.

For applying non-migrated persons needed a bona fide certificate by the concerned Deputy Commissioners to certify that such candidates belong to Kashmiri Pandit families and have not migrated from the Valley.

The petitioners’ plea was that the Deputy Commissioners, without any justification, chose not to grant such certificates in respect of a group of non-migrant Kashmiri Hindus, who according to them did not belong to the community of “Kashmiri Pandits”.

They averred that the benefit of Prime Minister’s Package cannot be restricted to only one community i.e. “Kashmiri Pandits”, ignoring other Hindu castes, communities and clans who have similarly suffered, because, they too despite adversity had opted not to migrate from the valley during turmoil in the year 1990.

However, the court observed that the matter was not res integra. Similar issue had earlier been considered by the court in 2019. (Kashmiri Sikh Community and others v. State of J&K and others)

The court said that the only question that remained to be determined in the present petition was whether the petitioners, who are, admittedly, not Kashmiri Pandits but belong to different castes of Hindus, can be brought within the definition of “Kashmiri Pandits.

Court held that in the absence of specific definition of the term “Kashmiri Pandit family”, the only way to find out the true meaning of the term is to apply the common parlance principle.

Accordingly, the court said that there is no denying the fact that in common parlance, Kashmiri Pandit is a community of Kashmiri speaking Brahmins living in the Valley from generations and are distinctly identified by their dress, customs and traditions etc. etc.

Therefore, the court refused to accept the petitioners’ contentions and denied them to avail the benefits of the schemes meant exclusively for the Kashmiri Non-Migrant Pandits.

Case Title: Rajeshwar Singh & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors.