Why in news:

• The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has recently ruled that all Hindus living in the Kashmir Valley were not Kashmiri Pandits and could not avail of schemes meant only for the community.

Key Points:

• The court passed the judgement in response to petitions filed by several Hindu groups and Sikhs seeking that they should be allowed to apply for jobs provided under the Prime Minister’s 2009 package for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
• The package was later also extended to non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits.
• The petitioners contended that other Hindu communities and Sikhs have also suffered greatly and should be considered for benefits extended to Kashmiri Pandits.
• The High Court, however, held that Kashmiri Pandits constituted a “separately identifiable community distinct from other Hindus residing in the Valley like Rajputs, Brahmins other than Kashmiri Pandits, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and many others.
• The judge said that the argument of the petitioners was preposterous and could not be accepted.
• Hence the court found no merit in the petition and dismissed it.
• The court held that in the absence of a specific definition of “Kashmiri Pandits”, the meaning of the term used in common parlance should be applicable.
• The court duly noted that “There is no denying the fact that in common parlance, ‘Kashmiri Pandit’ is a community of Kashmiri-speaking Brahmins living in the Valley from generations and are distinctly identified by their dress, customs and traditions etc,”
• In the early 1990s, the eruption of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir led to a massive exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley to Jammu.
• Most estimates say that 76,000 Pandit families left the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s.
  
  
   

High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh

• The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is the common high court for union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
• It was established as the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir on 26 March 1928 by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The seat of the court shifts between the summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu.
• The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 17, 13 of whom are permanent judges, and 4 are additional judges.
• The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir was established by Order No. 1, issued by Maharaja Hari Singh on 26 March 1928. The Maharaja appointed Lala Kanwar Sain as the first Chief Justice, and Lala Bodh Raj Sawhney and Khan Sahib Aga Syed Hussain as puisne judges.
•  The High Court sat at both the winter capital of Jammu, and the summer capital of Srinagar.
• Puisne judge Khan Sahib Aga Syed Hussain was the first Muslim Judge of the High Court.
• He retired as Home and Judicial Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during the Maharaja Rule.
• In August 2018, the High Court got its first woman judge with Justice Sindhu Sharma, who was appointed as a judge.
• In the same year, Justice Gita Mittal, was appointed as the first woman Chief justice of the High Court.
• In August 2019, a Reorganisation Bill was passed by both houses of the Indian Parliament.
• This bill reorganised the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh—as of 31 October 2019.
• After this reorganisation, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir continued serving as the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for both union territories.
• Justice Pankaj Mithal was appointed as the most recent chief justice of the High Court on 4 January 2021