Srinagar: Continuing the crackdown on employees in Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has dismissed two doctors who were accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation of fabricating evidence in the 2009 Shopian ‘rape and murder’ case.
The dismissal order, issued by Sinha under Article 311 of the Indian Constitution, comes more than 14 years after security forces were accused of raping and murdering two young Kashmiri women whose bodies were recovered from Rambiara water stream in Shopian on May 30, 2009.
An official probe had accused the J&K Police of destroying evidence, after which the case was handed over by the Omar Abdullah government to the CBI.
The agency, however, ruled out rape and murder and instead held that the two women had died due to drowning.
In its chargesheet, the central agency had accused two Kashmiri doctors – Dr Nighat Shaheen Chiloo and Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal – of fabricating evidence in the case, which had prompted mass protests across Kashmir in the summer of 2009.
The two doctors have now been dismissed from service.
Thirteen persons, including the brother of one of the victims and four more doctors who were involved in preparing the post-mortem report of the two victims, were named by the agency in the chargesheet in the Shopian case.
In an order issued on Thursday, June 22, LG Sinha said that he was “satisfied after considering the facts and circumstances” and “on the basis of the information available” that the activities of Dr Chiloo, a consultant gynaecologist at a central Kashmir hospital, ‘merited’ her dismissal from service.
“The Lieutenant Governor is satisfied under sub-clause (c) of the proviso to clause (2) of Article 311 of the Constitution of India that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold an enquiry” in her case, the dismissal order issued by J&K’s General Administration Department (GAD) reads.
A similarly worded dismissal order under Article 311 was issued by the GAD against Dr Dalal, who was posted as a medical officer at a health centre in Shopian district.
While Clause 2 provides a critical safeguard of inquiry for the employees who are dismissed by the administration without any notice under Article 311, the safeguard doesn’t apply if sub-clause (c) is invoked when “the President or the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry”.
Under Article 311, which has been described by activists and legal experts as an instrument of “executive impunity”, close to four dozen employees have been terminated from service by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on charges of having links with militant outfits, separatist organisations and others.
The termination orders are part of a concerted effort by the Union government to purge the J&K administration of employees with “suspect loyalties”. Most of the terminated employees face vague charges such as “creating disaffection against the Indian state” in Kashmir, allegedly at the behest of Pakistan.
To facilitate the purge, a ‘Special Task Force’ headed by Additional Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police with members from J&K’s home and law, justice and parliamentary affairs departments was set up on April 21, 2021 by the J&K administration to screen employees and prepare a list of those who are suspected of involvement in “anti-national activities”.
According to sources, the list is prepared after scrutinising the educational and family background of the employees, and their social media accounts. The list is then referred to a committee set up on July 30, 2020 which is headed by J&K’s chief secretary. The committee sends the list to the Lieutenant Governor’s office for action under Article 311.
The employees terminated under Article 311 in J&K so far include teachers, doctors, revenue officials, police personnel and others who are accused of vague charges such as “working against the interests of the state” and posing a “threat to the security of the state”.
The Hurriyat Conference, some Kashmir-based political parties and free speech activists have described the dismissals as a crackdown on dissent in Jammu and Kashmir after it was stripped of its special status in 2019.
A year after Article 370 was read down, the J&K administration empowered itself to prematurely retire employees “in public interest” for “non-performance, misbehaviour or bad conduct” by amending Article 225 (2) of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations 1956.
On March 3, 2021, the administration made verification by the Criminal Investigations Department, J&K’s counter-intelligence agency, mandatory for new entrants into government service, while passports are also being denied to employees who don’t obtain clearance from J&K’s vigilance department.
On September 16, 2021, the administration issued an order for “periodic verification” of all its employees and the Criminal Investigation Department was asked to deny clearances to employees involved in “sabotage, espionage, treason, terrorism, subversion, sedition/secession, facilitating foreign interference, incitement to violence or any other unconstitutional act.”
The order also asked the officials to deny clearance to employees whose relatives have “association or sympathy with persons who are attempting to commit any of the above acts or involved in aiding or abetting or advocating the above acts.”
Before Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and downgraded into two union territories on August 5, 2019, Article 311 was not applicable to the erstwhile state. However, successive governments used Section 126 of J&K’s Constitution to dismiss employees who were also provided safeguards, like in Article 311.