Srinagar
High Court of J&K and Ladakh on yesterday granted four more weeks time to to government to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the introduction of Islamic Banking in Jammu and Kashmir.Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and J&K Bank has already responded to the PIL.
A division bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Sanjay Dhar asked the government to file the “counter” within four weeks after additional advocate general M A Chashoo requested for more time for the same. The Court listed the PIL for further consideration on December 8.
In August this year the Court had observed that despite time was allowed on March 26 to the government for filing counter affidavit, the same had not been filed.
The Court had granted to the government a further period of one month as final opportunity to file the counter.
The PIL filed by an NGO J&K Peoples Forum in 2018 is seeking directions to union finance ministry for issuing necessary notification for the introduction of Sharia compliant windows (Islamic banking) as recommended by Deepak Mohanty Committee as well as in the light of a report of the inter-departmental group of RBI.
The Forum also seeks direction to RBI for taking immediate steps in the constituent banks including the J&K Bank so as to facilitate Shariah compliant windows. —Greater Kashmir
