In April 2021, the Jammu & Kashmir administration formed a special task force to identify government employees involved in ‘anti-national activities’. Since then, at least two dozen employees of the federally run territory have been terminated—‘in the interest of the security of the state’—by selectively invoking a constitutional provision that allows dismissal without a hearing.

On 2 November, the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) administration terminated the services of two senior government employees for alleged links with militant groups. The termination order, issued on the orders of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, quoted Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution.

One of those sacked was Feroz Ahmad Lone, then deputy superintendent of jails and posted in Jammu. His termination order read: “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…”

The second termination order was issued to Javid Ahmad Shah, then principal of a government girls school in Bijbehara town in the southern district of Anantnag. The order he received was almost identical.

These dismissals are the latest in a crackdown by the lieutenant governor’s administration in J&K against its own employees for alleged “anti-national activities”.

The men whose services were terminated from government jobs in November, like many of those similarly dismissed over the past few months, found the order quoted Article 311(2)(C) of the Constitution, which deals with the dismissal, removal, or reduction in rank of a government employee.

Article 311 is designed to be a safeguard against arbitrary dismissal of civil servants, ensuring that they get the chance to respond to any charges they may face in an inquiry. This also obligates the authority to give the employee a reasonable opportunity to be heard and to inform him or her of the grounds of dismissal.

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