Srinagar, Nov 13: The High Court has dismissed three separate appeals filed under the scrapped Roshni Act filed by Ghulam Rasool Mushtari and others who had sought ownership rights over portions of State land in Srinagar.
The Division Bench of Justice Shehzad Azeem and Justice Sindhu Sharma upheld the earlier Single Judge order dated July 24, 2018, which had rejected similar petitions.
The appellants had approached the court claiming ownership rights over land in Srinagar under the Jammu Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, widely known as the Roshni Act.
They argued that their continued possession of the land entitled them to ownership benefits granted under the erstwhile legislation.
The court, however, recorded that the land in question had long been registered as State land and was transferred to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation following acquisition proceedings in 1989.
The court further highlighted that after the 2020 Division Bench judgment in Prof SK Bhalla versus State of Jammu Kashmir, which declared the Roshni Act unconstitutional and void, no claim based on that law can survive.
Bench stated that it found no error in the judgment under challenge and dismissed all three appeals with the concurrence of the Chief Justice.
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