Roshni Act is a Shakespearean ‘Serpent Under the Innocent Flower’: A Critical Evaluation

The Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act sought to transfer the ownership rights of state land to its occupants on the provisioned payment of certain cost which was to be determined by the government. The government while enacting the Act claimed that out of the revenue that would be generated by the costs paid by the occupants, spending would be done on commissioning hydroelectric power projects. William Shakespeare in one of his most famous tragic plays, Macbeth, said, “look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’”. In these lines, Shakespeare meant that ‘one should look innocent while pursuing murderous plans’ or ‘carry a legal appearance if your object or motive is illegal, in order to accomplish the illegal object without any hindrance or repulsion’. And so is the nature of the Roshni Act. The real object that has been officially claimed by the Jammu and Kashmir government is illusionary and has been held as such by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The Act is violative of many provisions of the Indian Constitution and, therefore, has been declared unconstitutional by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.