Supreme Court questions suspension of J-K lecturer who argued against Article 370 abrogation

NEW DELHI : After the Jammu and Kashmir government suspended a lecturer soon after he appeared in the Supreme Court and spoke against abolition of Article 370, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud asked the attorney general to look into the matter, as per a Live Law report. The J-K administration removed a senior political science lecturer Zaroor Ahmad Bhat from his position with immediate effect. Bhat was teaching at Government Higher Secondary School Jawahar Nagar Srinagar and had argued in the SC against abrogation of Article 370 in the union territory.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal informed the apex court, which was hearing the petitions challenging the revoking of Article 370 of the Constitution in J-K, about the suspension. He said, “My lords, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, the academic who came here and argued for a few minutes- because he argued what he argued he was suspended from the faculty on 25th August. He took leave for two days, went back, and was suspended.” Sibal expressed surety that AG SG Mehta will look into the issue upon which CJI asked Mehta to check.

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When AG said that he read about the suspension in the newspapers and it “may not be the whole truth”, advocate Sibal argued that in that case the lecturer should have been suspended earlier and called it unfair. To this, CJI told AJ, “Mr AG, just see what has happened. Someone who appears in this court is suspended now...have a look into it. Talk to LG.”

The J-K school education department notified the suspension of the teacher. "Pending enquiry into his conduct, Mr Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, Senior Lecturer, Political Science, presently posted at Government Higher Secondary School Jawahar Nagar Srinagar, is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect for violation of provisions of J&K CSR, Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees (Conduct) Rules 1971, J&K Leave Rules," an order from the department said.

The J-K administration attached the teacher to the office and also appointed Subah Mehta, joint director, school education as an inquiry officer to carry out an in-depth inquiry into the conduct of the teacher.

In 2019, the central government scrapped Article 370 which granted special status to J-K and divided the union territory into two parts.

(with inputs from PTI)