ISLAMABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Indian government using the so-called Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, has scrapped a 37-year-old law that permitted the return of J&K residents who migrated to Pakistan from 1947 to 1954.
According to Kashmir Media Service the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Permit for Resettlement in (or Permanent Return to) the State Act, 1982, which gave legal cover allowing J&K residents and their descendants who had migrated to Pakistan from March 1, 1947 to May 14, 1954 to return to India, was one of the 153 state laws and Governors’ Acts abolished under the J&K Reorganisation Act.
The Act was passed by parliament on August 5, after the Government of India read down Article 370 of the Constitution. “Since the Resettlement Act has been abolished, the doors have been shut for the return of these J&K residents from Pakistan,” said Abdur Rahim Rather, senior National Conference (NC) leader and former J&K law minister.–Agencies
