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SHRC: No law requires seeking permission for holding public events: JKCCS
YB WEB DESK. Dated: 2/21/2018 9:31:24 PM
The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in its order on banning of last year’s event on Kunan Poshpora by the police has observed that, “there is no law which obliges a person to seek prior permission to hold a meeting in a private place within the four corners of a hall or a hotel for a lawful purpose”. The order by SHRC proves that the Jammu and Kashmir Police unreasonably, arbitrarily and whimsically prevents peaceful assemblies and events highlighting human rights abuses from taking place.
The J&K government has been selectively either banning or declining permission for organizing peaceful events and meetings around issues that are inconvenient for them and which the State prefers to discourage people from discussing. The Indian state has always sought to curtail the freedom of Kashmiri people to assemble and express themselves.
In order to commemorate the struggles of the people of Kunan Poshpora, last year the Support Group for Justice for Kunan Poshpora organized a press conference on the 23rd of February where the survivors of rape and torture were to speak. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar denied permission to hold the conference in a letter dated 22nd of February stating that, “there is an apprehension of law and order problem when the issue of Kunan Poshpora is raised”, thus preventing the survivors from addressing the media and speaking about their struggle.
It is important to note that the State administration disallowed a lecture on Kashmir by noted historian Dr Mridu Rai in 2015, stating no valid reason pointing to the fact that the government works on its whims.
It is pertinent to mention that the Support Group for Justice for Kunan Poshpora has been commemorating the struggle of the survivors of Kunan Poshpora mass rape as the Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day on the 23rd of February since 2014 through peaceful events in Srinagar.