The Jammu and Kashmir government led by Omar Abdullah is facing a backlash after it filed an affidavit in the high court defending a controversial reservation policy after fiercely opposing it in public.

The affidavit has sought the dismissal of petitions challenging the policy.

After getting into hot water, senior minister Sakina Itoo said the affidavit was not the final word.

The policy puts two of Jammu and Kashmir’s biggest ethnic groups — the Kashmiris and the Dogras (barring SCs) — at a disadvantage.

Critics claim the policy reduces the share of the open merit quota for 70 per cent population of the Union Territory to a mere 30-40 per cent. The policy was introduced by the BJP-led government ahead of the elections to gain political mileage.

The government affidavit termed the plea challenging the policy as an “abuse of judicial process” and requested that it be dismissed at the preliminary stage with heavy costs.

The affidavit was submitted on April 4 before the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh by the social welfare department, which argued that the petition was filed without any cause of action and was driven by ulterior motives aimed at misleading the judiciary.

“The petitioners have filed the present petition on completely false grounds in an attempt to deceive the court. It is an important question of fact that how the petitioners have mandated themselves to invoke extraordinary writ jurisdiction that too in personal capacity and the fact that the impugned statutory order, issued by the UT of J&K has not diminished, intervened or altered at all, the percentage of reservation to the already declared tribes,” the affidavit claims.

“As such, the instant writ petition on the face of it is an attempt to abuse the judicial process motivated by ill will, ulterior and oblique motives,” it added.

The government’s stand triggered sharp reactions from political leaders.

“In an affidavit filed before the J&K High Court yesterday by J&K Government in the case of Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and others vs UT of J&K, pertaining to RESERVATIONS, J&K government has submitted that the petition is frivolous and sought its outright dismissal. Nowhere has the government mentioned the formation of a subcommittee on reservations. This is a legal mystery,” Peoples Conference president and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone posted on X.

PDP leader and Pulwama MLA Waheed Parra accused the government of protecting a flawed reservation policy. “The so-called cabinet committee was nothing but a facade to mislead the public. Now, they’re seeking to dismiss the writ petition as baseless — another blatant attempt to sabotage the future of meritorious students in J&K,” Parra said.

Itoo, who heads the three-member panel constituted to re-examine the reservation policy, said the affidavit was not the last word and the panel would submit its report soon.

“The chief minister is very serious on the issue and we have to update him daily about the meeting that the committee holds with stakeholders,” she said.