The ordinance amends the existing law to more effectively discourage/prevent deleterious activities of individuals/organisations which result in damage to public and private property.
The Jammu and Kashmir government promulgated an ordinance on Friday that says people calling for strikes and demonstrations — if they result in damage to public or private property — can be jailed for two to five years and fined a sum equivalent to the market value of the property damaged or destroyed.
Since the state legislature is not in session, Governor NN Vohra, on the recommendations of the Chief Minister, promulgated the Jammu and Kashmir Public Property (Prevention of Damage) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017. It has come into force with immediate effect.
Strife-torn Kashmir has witnessed a series of separatist-sponsored agitations in which property worth thousands of crores of rupees has been damaged and destroyed from 2008 to 2016. A total of 34 schools were burnt during the 2016 unrest.
The ordinance amends the existing law to more effectively discourage/prevent deleterious activities of individuals/organisations which result in damage to public and private property.
The amendment has been made to implement the directions given by the Supreme Court in a case titled "In Re-Destruction of Public and Private Properties vs State of A.P and others (2009)".
The ordinance has been promulgated to make damage to public and private property due to direct action punishable, and to make any person calling for direct action liable for abetment of such an offence, the government said.
Further, the scope of the existing law which was earlier restricted to public property has been enlarged to also include private property.
The CPM said the move will have a grave implication and will trample the legitimate democratic rights of people.
"Government needs to answer that if people protest for livelihood issues, mis-governance and excessive use of force, will they also be booked under this new law? Many illustrations from the past reveal that such laws have often been widely misused. These are authoritarian laws which trample civil and democratic rights of the people", said MY Tarigami, state secretary, CPM.
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