After POTO, the Centre is set to suffer another embarrassment because of a controversial Jammu and Kashmir law that has suddenly been brought out of cold storage after 19 years. It allows all those who migrated to Pakistan between 1947 and 1954 to return and resume their rights as Indian citizens.
The BJP has demanded that the Farooq Abdullah Government repeal the Resettlement Act passed by the J&K Assembly in 1982. At that time, the Indira Gandhi Government at the Centre had referred the matter to the Supreme Court asking whether the Act was ‘‘constitutionally invalid.’’ It’s only this month that the apex court returned the reference ‘‘unanswered.’’