Jammu– The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has set guidelines for any person for claiming the benefit of reservation on the ground that he or she belongs to an identified area near Line of Actual Control.
“….we say and hold, that for claiming the benefit of reservation by a person on the ground that he belongs to identified area near Line of Actual Control, a person is required to establish …..i) He/she belongs to an area identified near Line of Actual Control (before SRO 321 of 2019 dated 27.05.2019 a person claiming the benefit was to establish that he was a resident of an area near Line of Control)”, said a bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Puneet Gupta.
The other stipulations are: ii) That he or she has resided in the area for a period not less than fifteen years prior to the date of application;
iii) He or she is actually residing in the said area on the date of application;
iv) He or she shall not be disentitled from claiming the benefit only on the ground that his or her father or the person on whom he or she is dependent is living in a place outside such area identified as ALC are on Accounts of his (a) employment; or (b) business; or (c) other professional or vocational reasons; or (d) migration from one place to another. v) He or she shall not be entitled to issue of certificate of ALC, if his annual income from all sources would exceed the ceiling limit prescribed under Clause (ix) of Section 2(o). vi) He/she shall not be disentitled to seek the benefit of being a person belonging to socially and educationally backward classes on Accounts of income ceiling provided under Clause (ix).
The court set the guidelines while upholding an appeal by Abhishek Khajuria(25) was born in the year 1993 in village Samwan Pallanwala Tehsil Khour District Jammu, an area adjoining to the Actual Line of Control (ALC).
In the year 1999, due to disturbance on the border, Khajuria, who was six years old, was forced to shift and take temporary residence along with his parents in the township of Akhnoor.
It is where he was brought up and received education. At the time of shifting from Samwan to Akhnoor, both his parents were serving in the School Education Department and were posted in Akhnoor only.
Later Tehsildar, Akhnoor issued requisite category certificate in favour of Khajuria on 23rd September, 2008 for five years and it was later extended by 5 more years. However, a candidate for the area moved to the Deputy Commissioner upon Khujuria figuring in waiting list of an examination conducted by JKSSB, contending that the certificate of ALC category issued in favour of the appellant in the year 2008 and renewed in the year 2013 by the Tehsildar, Akhnoor was contrary to and in violation of Jammu & Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 and the J&K Reservation Rules, 2005.
Accordingly, vide his order dated 17.02.2018, the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu cancelled the certificate of ALC category issued in favour of Khujuria. Against this order, Khajuria had filed the plea before the High Court’s single bench which came to be dismissed on 03.05.2019. Khajuria had filed an appeal against this order before the Division bench which dismissed the same.
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