SRINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) Indian government using the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, has scrapped a 37-year-old law that had permitted the return of J&K residents who migrated to Pakistan between 1947 and 1954.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Jammu & 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 Re-organisation Act.
The law was passed by parliament on August 5, after the Government of India scrapped Article 370 of its 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.
“It is a closed chapter now,” he said.
