Jammu Tawi, Dec 1: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has upheld a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order, stating that Kashmiri Pandit women who marry non-migrants will not lose their migrant status. The court’s decision supports the case of two women, Seema Koul and Vishalni Koul, who had been provisionally selected for positions under the PM employment package but had their selection canceled because they married non-migrants.
The women had approached the High Court in 2018 after their selection as legal assistants in the Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction under the PM package was revoked in December 2017. The revocation was based on the argument that they had lost their migrant status due to their marriages.
In a ruling last month, a division bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Mohammad Yousuf Wani observed that it would be unjust to strip these women of their migrant status solely based on their marriages. The bench pointed out that the women had been forced to leave their homes in the Kashmir Valley during the exodus and that their migrant status was earned due to the suffering endured by them and their families.
The court stressed that it was unreasonable to expect migrant women to remain unmarried to preserve their migrant status, especially considering the challenges posed by the exodus. “To lose their status just because they married a non-migrant would be discriminatory,” the court said, further noting that such a policy was unfair, particularly when a male migrant would not lose his status for marrying a non-migrant.
The ruling highlights the existing gender disparity, where male migrants retain their status while women face discrimination. The court dismissed the writ petition filed by the Union Territory against the CAT’s May 16 order and declared that the tribunal’s decision was “just and proper.”
The court also rejected the argument presented by the appellants regarding the non-disclosure of marital status by the women, stating that the advertisement did not specify cancellation of candidature on such grounds. Moreover, the appellants failed to demonstrate any material injustice caused by this non-disclosure.
Since the announcement of the PM employment package in 2008, around 4,000 Kashmiri migrant Pandits have been employed across various departments in Kashmir, with provisions for both jobs and accommodation under the package.
