The Kashmir chapter of 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”.
The Bar’s new constitution and its objectives are principally concerned with, among other things, to “promote the rights and interests of the legal profession in general and of the members of the Association in particular”.
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.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
