NEW DELHI, Apr 10:
Allowing a plea of a displaced Kashmiri man, the Delhi High Court today directed J&K Government to pay him Rs two lakh compensation for his house which he had abandoned following outbreak of militancy in 1989 and was burned down after being occupied by army and police.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the State Government and directed it to pay the amount to Omkar Nath Bhat, who hails from Anantnag district.
Directing the State Government to pay the amount with 7 per cent rate of interest since November 2005 till date, the court made it clear that if Bhat had already received Rs 25,000 earlier, the Government would deduct the amount and pay the rest Rs 1.75 lakh to him.
“It is sufficiently established that the house was abandoned as a result of violence attributable to breach of law and order or any other form of civil commotion, I am therefore unable to find as to how the petitioner (Bhat), even if the version of the respondent (J&K state) was to be believed, can be treated differently and be denied the compensation in accordance with the policy applied in a case,” Justice Endlaw said and referred to an earlier judgement of the high court.
Filing a petition through counsel B L Wali for an order to the Resident Commissioner of the state here, Bhat, presently residing in Delhi, submitted that due to disturbance in the state he had abandoned his house at Utterso in Anantnag district in 1989.
Seeking compensation of Rs 2 lakh, he claimed that his house was occupied by Indian army for the period 1991-2000 but after that the house was used as police post by the J&K police till September 2005 but in November, 2005 the house was burnt down and the State Government had failed to compensate him.
The court rejected the State Government’s argument that the house had caught fire due to a short circuit and it was not burnt by the state police.
“I am, moreover, of the view that the burden, in the facts and circumstances, was on the respondent (state) of proving destruction of the house by electrical short circuit. The respondent has failed to discharge the said burden. The DD report relied upon is sketchy and bereft of any particulars,” the court said.
In the judgement, the court further directed the Centre to deduct the amount from its fund for the state, in case the State Government failed to pay the compensation amount to Bhat. (PTI)
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