SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir high court has given the Union Territory administration and the Centre three months to respond to petitions challenging a ban on 25 Kashmir-related books, an official in the additional advocate-general’s (AG) office said.The ban was clamped by the home department under lieutenant-governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on Aug 5 this year on the sixth anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, with the order claiming the books promoted a “false narrative” and “secessionism”. The elected govt of CM Omar Abdullah is not a party to the case as it did not issue the order.The HC has constituted a three-judge full bench to hear petitions challenging the bar on books, including Azadi by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. The HC has directed the LG Sinha-headed administration and the Centre to file replies by Feb 11, 2026. UT authorities are expected to explain the grounds for prohibiting the books, many of which were seized in police raids on shops.The petitions, filed by journalist David Devadas, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami of CPI(M), retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, advocate Shakir Shabir and others, contend that the ban violates constitutional guarantees of free speech. They have challenged the home department’s notification ordering forfeiture of such books under Section 95 of CrPC.The books include Kashmir: The Case for Freedom by Tariq Ali and Pankaj Mishra; Confronting Terrorism by Stephen P. Cohen, Independent Kashmir by Christopher Snedden, Between Democracy and Nation by Seema Kazi, Contested Lands by Sumantra Bose, In Search of a Future by journalist and author David Devdas, A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 by Anuradha Bhasin and Colonizing Kashmir by Hafsa Kanjwal.The home department’s ban order cited “credible intelligence” that a significant driver behind youth participation in violence and terrorism was “systematic dissemination of false narratives and secessionist literature, often disguised as historical or political commentary”.
