The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Monday granted the government additional time to file its objections to a batch of petitions challenging the administration’s decision to declare 25 books as “forfeited” in the Union Territory.
A full bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli, Justice Rajnesh Oswal, and Justice Shahzad Azeem adjourned the matter to February 11 next year. The court made it clear that appropriate orders would follow if the government failed to submit its response by then.
The petitions have been filed by Shakir Shabir, Swastik Singh, David Devadas, CPI(M) leader Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, and others.
One of the petitions, filed by Kapil Kak and others — including academic Sumantra Bose, whose two books have been forfeited, author Radha Kumar, and former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah — invokes Section 99 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), seeking to set aside the forfeiture order.
The petitioners have argued that the government notification merely cites statutory provisions without outlining specific grounds for the forfeiture. They contend that the order fails to distinguish between the government’s “opinion” and the legally required “grounds” supporting that opinion, which, they argue, must be clearly stated in the notification itself.
The petitions seek to quash the notification dated August 5, 2025, issued by the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government.
The books declared forfeited include political and historical works such as The Kashmir Dispute 1947–2012 by A G Noorani; Kashmir at the Crossroads and Contested Lands by Sumantra Bose; In Search of a Future: The Kashmir Story by David Devadas; Azadi by Arundhati Roy; and A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 by journalist Anuradha Bhasin.
