Thaindian News

Jammu, Sep 19 (IANS) The nomadic Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir are demanding constitutional validity for their age-old “jirga system” by which they can resolve issues through their “tribal courts” led by community heads in the state.

The secretary of the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, Javed Rahi, told IANS Monday that he had written a letter to union Law Minister Salman Khurshid, signed by various other tribal heads, saying: “The Jirga system needs preservation, protection and constitutional validity.”

The letters says: “This oldest popular system of justice is facing multi-dimensional threats and needs immediate legal recognition. Otherwise, this tradition will get extinct in the next few decades.”

There are about two million Gujjars and Bakerwals in Jammu and Kashmir. They migrate along with their livestock to the upper reaches of the state in summer and come down to the plains in winter.

According to Rahi, the letter said that lakhs of Gujjar-Bakerwals in Jammu and Kashmir and other north-western states still practice the Jirga system, headed by “Muqadams”, an elderly tribal. Some Gujjar women, called “Mahries”, also head Jirgas in remote pockets.

He said that the nomads, living in remote mountainous areas and mostly on the move, cannot afford the “expensive and time-consuming government legal system”.

Another community leader Hashim Ali said: “Jirgas are very powerful in maintaining law and order and we believe that it is against religion to defy the decision of elders.”

Rahi added: “We also made an appeal to the union law and justice minister to pass an act for the protection of Jirgas to be made extendable to Jammu and Kashmir and other north-western States of India.”