J&K & Ladakh HC Issues Notice on Pleas Challenging Govt’s Forfeiture of 25 Books for ‘Secessionist’ Content

The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on Monday issued notice in a batch of petitions challenging the government’s notification forfeiting 25 books under Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

The petitions challenge the legality and constitutional validity of S.O. 203, dated August 5, 2025, through which the Home Department of the Union Territory ordered the forfeiture of 25 publications alleged to contain content “prejudicial to the security of the State and public order."

The plea filed by retired Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak along with other academicians and former bureaucrats including Wajahat Habibullah, Dr. Radha Kumar, and Dr. Sumantra Bose, contends that the impugned notification was passed in violation of statutory safeguards and constitutional guarantees.

The petitioners argue that Section 98 of the BNSS, which allows forfeiture of publications containing matter punishable under specified sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), mandates the government to record and publish specific “grounds of opinion". The challenged notification, they say, contains no reasoning or references to the alleged offending passages and applies a blanket ban to books spanning nearly a century of publication.

The plea terms the notification a “sweeping and mechanical exercise” that criminalises academic inquiry and legitimate expression on Kashmir. It asserts that the government has failed to demonstrate how the listed publications, many of which are scholarly or historical works, could be considered threats to sovereignty or integrity. The petitioners have sought the quashing of the notification and a direction restraining the authorities from seizing or confiscating the said books pending adjudication.

Two other petitions, one filed by law student Swastik Singh and another by Shakir Shabir, a reader and resident of Srinagar, raise similar constitutional objections. Both pleas argue that the notification is ultra vires the BNSS and violates the rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19(1)(a), and 21 of the Constitution. The petitioners contend that the order was passed without any independent application of mind and lacks even a single supporting material or FIR to substantiate the claim of seditious or unlawful content.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli, Justice Rajnesh Oswal, and Justice Shahzad Azeem heard the matter today. It will be next taken up on December 4, 2025.

The notification includes Independent Kashmir by Christopher Snedden, A.G. Noorani’s The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, Sumantra Bose’s Kashmir at Cross Roads, Azadi by Arundhati Roy, and Stephen P. Cohen’s Confronting Terrorism. The list also includes works by Islamic scholars Imam Hasan Al-Bana and Moulana Moudadi.

Case Title: Shakir Shabir vs UOI and connected matters

Order Date: October 13, 2025

Bench: Chief Justice Arun Palli, Justice Rajnesh Oswal, and Justice Shahzad Azeem