'8Th Pass' Clause: J&K HC Closes PIL After Govt Vows Review

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has closed a Public Interest Litigation, seeking its directions to do away with precondition of 8th pass for poor girls to avail the benefits under State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS).

While the petitioner-Abdul Hamid Rather, a law student, contended that the stipulation was unfair to poor and underprivileged girls, senior additional Advocate General on behalf of the government assured the court that the matter shall be examined in the“right earnest” and appropriate orders in this regard shall be passed within a period of two months.

Subsequent to the submissions, a bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal closed the PIL filed earlier this year, seeking court's direction to quash Clause 3(b) of Annexure 'A' to Government order No.49-JK(SWD) of 2022 dated March 22, 2022, issued by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Jammu & Kashmir, as regards imposition of the eligibility requirement of passing at least 8th standard for poor girls to avail the benefit under SMAS.

As soon as the hearing in the PIL started, the petitioner submitted that prior to institution of this petition, he had submitted numerous representations to the authorities as regards his concerns and grievances but to no avail.

Senior AAG A. R. Malik, on behalf of the authorities, submitted that the competent authority was already cognisant of the representation submitted by the petitioner. He submitted that it would be expedient if the PIL was disposed of at this stage to enable the authorities to examine and deal with the concerns and grievances of the petitioner and take necessary measures in accordance with law.

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That being so, the petitioner submitted that the PIL be disposed of in terms of the statement made by the senior AAG. However, he urged that authorities be directed to take a decision in this regard within a specified time.

As to this, the senior AAG submitted that the matter shall be examined in the right earnest by the authorities and appropriate orders in this regard shall be passed within a period of two months.

“In the wake of the above, the writ petition (PIL) is disposed of in terms of the statements made by the learned counsel for the parties,” the court said.

In April this year, the government increased the financial assistance under the scheme for the poor girls of marriageable age belonging to AAY ration card holder families from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000.

For girls from families with Priority Household (PHH) ration cards, the financial assistance will remain at Rs 50,000.

Any girl of legally marriageable age from an AAY or PHH ration card-holding family will be eligible for the one-time financial assistance.

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