Srinagar: On the last day of the first session of the Jammu and Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly on November 8, Congress legislator Nizamuddin Bhat sought a review of the police verification process, highlighting the plight of individuals denied jobs and travel documents in the last five years in Kashmir.
On the floor of the House, he cited two cases from his Bandipora Assembly Constituency who were denied jobs due to ‘adverse’ reports against them for their relationship with alleged suspects.
One of the cases Bhat cited was that of Sobia Mushtaq, who is an orphan and postgraduate in Literature and was selected as a contractual lecturer in the J&K government’s education department for the last two consecutive years.
She was denied a job for want of clearance from the Police not once but twice over her younger brother’s involvement in a stone-throwing case. The denial came despite the court acquitting him in May 2022. “If there is direct involvement, the person can be held liable,” Bhat told ETV Bharat.
He said he was held for hours at Delhi Airport and let go to proceed on a holy pilgrimage alongside his wife to Saudi Arabia on ‘compassionate’ grounds in 2023.
“However, anyone who is remotely connected with militant or Overground workers (OGWs) or separatists—whether alive or dead-or their relatives are affected. They are not allowed to be part of government service or PSU. They are being denied passports and service verification is on hold.”
This stringent process has trapped many people, even those with no direct involvement in militancy, separatism or anti-state activities in Kashmir.
For a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer’s family in Kashmir, the fear of getting rejected runs deep. His son worked as a junior doctor at a tertiary care hospital in the valley and was unpaid for months because his service verification by the Police was delayed.
“Three years ago, he joined as a junior resident in a government hospital and was not getting monthly salaries while his colleagues were drawing it,” said a family member of the former bureaucrat pleading anonymity.
“After checking with the authorities, we found out that the verification for securing the job was not clear. It showed adverse reports against our family.” The uncle of the doctor signed up as a militant for a few months with the eruption of terrorism beginning ‘90s and consequently surrendered before the security forces.
The delay in verification was attributed to their uncle’s past. Now reformed, the uncle has served as a doctor in the J&K health department for over two decades but his past continues to haunt the younger generation. “My uncle himself secured a No Objection Certificate from the Police for his job because he gave up militancy on his own,” the family member said.
“But since we had access to the government, we eventually cleared it with the concerned department. However, we anticipated the denial of verification when the doctor secured admission for MD and went to the police to get it cleared again.”
The verification mandatory for securing jobs or travel documents such as passports now extends beyond the individual to include families and extended relatives. In the last five years, this process has denied opportunities to scores of people, even the young generation who were yet to be born before the involvement of suspects in a case in the region.
Like Manzoor Ahmad (name changed), a young Kashmiri boy who cleared a prestigious exam to join the uniformed forces this year. He was denied the opportunity due to his uncle’s involvement in militancy even though the uncle had been killed a decade before the aspirant was born. Hence, denied the opportunity to take up his ‘dream job’.
“I have crossed the eligibility age to take the exam again next year,” he said. “There is nothing against my father or my family but I have never seen my uncle. Even I proved this before all whom I met to get my case cleared to no avail. They understood my situation but could not help.”
Several officials tasked with the process acknowledge the verification process has become stricter, resulting in the denial of opportunity to many without any direct ideological or physical involvement in terrorism, separatism or logistical support to terrorists.
Several individuals, for example, ETV Bharat were ‘cleared’ by the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) yet were denied opportunity. Last year in April, police said 2.82 lakh passports were cleared and only 805 were rejected.
It justified the ‘deep vetting’ and said the CID organisation has no modus operandi to dispose of cases on pick and choose basis, neither based on region, religion or political affiliation nor selective application of rules and regulations.
Now, the department opened a Public Grievance Cell on Passport verification cases, service and other verifications in its Srinagar office last month.
The top police officer of CID ADGP could not be reached. Describing it as ‘collective punishment’, this verification process prompted the Peoples Conference led by Sajad Lone to announce approaching the Supreme Court.
The MLA from Handwara was inspired by the top court’s landmark judgment last week condemning the bulldozing of properties and terming it unjust punishment targeting families holistically. The party is gathering details including individual cases and the procedure adopted in the verification process before presenting it to their legal counsel, to make it a watertight case.
However, insiders said they are reconsidering approaching the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh first after getting legal suggestions from their counsel in the Supreme Court. Legally, the verification has to be carried out of an individual, verifying their antecedents and character under the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Verification of Character and Antecedents) Instructions, 1997.
The procedure has a one-month timeline for police verification with an extension of 30 days for some cases. The appointment of an aspirant with adverse verification has to be cancelled without any notice.
Several legal experts agree the current process is stringent, violating fundamental rights citing several judgements including the landmark Supreme Court verdict on former BJP minister Maneka Gandhi's case on the impounding of her passport in 1978.
Ishaq Qadri, who was J&K advocate general in the two successive J&K governments, said that the law does not debar a person from a job or travel document for someone else’s crime.
“Every person is innocent until proven guilty. Only an individual has to be verified, his character and antecedents should be clear for securing a job or passport unlike the current procedure involving his cousin or any relation. Right to movement is a fundamental right, and a person can’t be barred for someone else’s crime or a mere allegation.”
Now the people are looking at the Omar Abdullah government, which promised to simplify the verification process in their election manifesto.
But since the police do not fall in the domain of the elected government in the union territory, National Conference chief spokesperson and legislator Tanvir Sadiq said they are committed to resolving this issue. "Right now, there are some constraints in the union territory," he added.
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