Peoples Conference to challenge police verification system in Supreme Court

Srinagar, Nov 14: Buoyed by the Supreme Court’s judgment on “bulldozer justice,” Peoples Conference on Thursday announced that it would challenge the existing police verification system in the Supreme Court.
A day after the Supreme Court observed that the demolition of a house solely because the person residing there is either an accused or convicted in a criminal case will amount to inflicting “collective punishment” on the entire family, Peoples Conference today announced that it would approach the apex court against the police verification system in Jammu & Kashmir, which it termed as a more chronic and serious case of collective punishment against the family.
“Encouraged by the bulldozer judgment where the Supreme Court clearly ruled that it is a collective punishment against the family, the JKPC will approach the Supreme Court with a plea that the system of police verification in Jammu and Kashmir is a more chronic and serious case of collective punishment against the family,” the party said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
In a post on X, PC president Sajad Gani Lone said that an adverse police verification certificate in Kashmir is a collective punishment against the family. “In the highlighted para, the Supreme Court calls it collective punishment against the family. An adverse police verification certificate because a relative has an adverse police record is also a collective punishment against the family. Kashmir-specific Stone Age justice,” Lone said.
In its election manifesto for the 2024 assembly polls, PC had promised to put an end to the “practice of Kashmiris being blacklisted by security agencies, which bars them from getting jobs, passports, and government contracts.”
In the recent assembly session, Lone said the police verification is a sword over the youth. “In the whole country, an individual is verified, but here the whole family and even extended family is verified,” he said, adding that police verification should be brought at par with other parts of the country.