Jammu & Kashmir’s Roshni Act

The Jammu & Kashmir administration has recently released a series of lists of alleged beneficiaries of the Roshni Act of 2001, now scrapped, which gave ownership rights to the unauthorised occupants of state land against payment of a premium.

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Political leaders and bureaucrats have been among those named. The transfers are being probed by the CBI.

Following a recent order by the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, the administration has annulled the Act (it was earlier repealed prospectively) and decided to retrieve land transferred under the Roshni scheme.

Formally the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, Roshni Act was passed by the then National Conference government to give ownership to people in possession of state land, with a cut-off of 1990, and against a payment as determined by the government.

Since the aim was to generate resources for hydroelectric power projects, it was called Roshni (Light) Act.

In its 2014 report, the CAG termed the scheme a Rs-25,000-crore scam. In October 2018, then Governor Satya Pal Malik repealed the Roshni Act prospectively.