January,1,2016: A Division bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday stayed Court's order directing the state Government to hoist the state flag on official buildings and vehicles of constitutional authorities.
A petition was moved by National Secretary of BJP Farooq Khan before a division bench of Justices Tashi Rabstan and Bansi Lal Bhat challenging the single bench order passed by Justice Hasnain Masoodi upholding a government circular which asked all constitutional authorities to hoist the state flag atop their official buildings and vehicles.
After hearing arguments, the division bench stayed the order of the single bench. “After hearing the argument for a long time, the Division bench finally stayed the judgement of single bench,” Sunil Sethi, counsel for the petitioner, told reporters.
A detailed order was awaited.
The development triggered a political storm with former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah attacking Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed saying if he cannot defend the state’s dignity and flag from the “nefarious” plans of his ally BJP “he should step down and find someone who can” defend it.
“If Mufti Syed (Sayeed) can’t defend the state’s dignity & flag from the nefarious plans of his allies he should step down and find someone who can!” Omar wrote on Twitter.
BJP, which is an ally of the PDP, has had a stand of ‘ek vidhan, ek nishan, ek pradhan’ (One Constitution, One Flag, One leader).
Omar asked why Jammu and Kashmir was expected to respect the terms of accession while the rest of the country could disregard it.
“Why is only J&K expected to respect the terms of accession while the rest of the country can disregard them with impunity?” he asked.
Responding to the online criticism, Omar asserted that two flags will fly in the state as long as it continued to be part of India.
“Here’s what I’ll say — so long as J&K is a part of India the two flags will continue to fly & we’ll take pride in it.
“Having a state flag accepted & recognised by the Constitutions of India & J&K is NOT Azadi. Jeez!” he wrote.
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