In their manifestos for the J&K Assembly elections, several parties – including the National Conference, which is now in power, and ally Congress – promised to reinstate the Durbar Move. The NC said this was necessary “to enhance the unity of our state”. In their manifestos for the J&K Assembly elections, several parties – including the National Conference, which is now in power, and ally Congress – promised to reinstate the Durbar Move. The NC said this was necessary “to enhance the unity of our state”.

MORE THAN three years after the Jammu and Kashmir administration headed by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha formally abolished the 152-year-old Durbar Move tradition between Jammu and Srinagar, the newly elected Union Territory government appears to have by and large restored the practice.

An order issued on October 23 directs that “all the UT-level heads of departments” be asked to “ensure their availability” at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu along with the Administrative Secretaries from November 11 onwards. “However, they will attend the Civil Secretariat, Srinagar, as per functional requirement,” says the order.

In their manifestos for the J&K Assembly elections, several parties – including the National Conference, which is now in power, and ally Congress – promised to reinstate the Durbar Move. The NC said this was necessary “to enhance the unity of our state”.

What was the Durbar Move?

It was the name given to the bi-annual shifting of the Civil Secretariat and other offices of the state government from Jammu to Srinagar in the summer, and vice-versa in the winter. This was done as Jammu & Kashmir has two capitals: Kashmir during the summer and Jammu during the winter.

Apart from officials, the J&K Chief Minister and his Cabinet plus the MLAs along with their staff shifted as part of the exercise, with the Assembly operating from Jammu.

In Jammu, offices shut on the last Friday and Saturday of April and reopened in Srinagar on the first Monday after a gap of a week. In Kashmir, offices shut on the last Friday and Saturday of October, to reopen in Jammu on the first Monday after a week’s gap, in November.

Until Article 370 was abrogated in August 2019, the Durbar Move required the administration to engage hundreds of trucks and buses to carry office records and officials from one capital city to another, twice a year.

The practice first stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic. An order issued by the J&K Administration on April 10, 2020, when the winter months were technically on, said that in view of “the extraordinary circumstances” due to the pendemic, “the Civil Secretariat at Jammu shall continue to remain functional and the ‘Darbar Move’ employees shall work on ‘as is where is’ basis. It will allow Kashmir-based staff to work from Srinagar and Jammu-based staff shall work from Jammu”.

Later, the government said that 19 departments along with their administrative secretaries would function from the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar and 18 departments in Jammu.

What were the origins of the Durbar Move?

The Durbar Move was started in 1872 by the erstwhile Dogra rulers of J&K, who hailed from Jammu, with the boundaries of their empire extending to Kashmir, including what is now Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, and Ladakh.

At the time, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh – which are quite different from one another geographically, linguistically and culturally – were very poorly connected. The Durbar Move was meant to take the administration from Jammu to the doorsteps of the people of Kashmir in the summer. This also put officials at an accessible distance from Ladakh. Summers were, in fact, used to ensure that adequate supplies reached Ladakh before the winter snowfall cut it off.

Apart from this, the practice was seen as enabling greater bonding among the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

 But there was also opposition to the Durbar Move. Why?

Voices of protest first rose during the late 1980s, which was when militancy also took hold, over the amount of money and time spent on the Durbar Move exercise. However, the practice enjoyed public support. In the late 1980s, when the then NC government led by Farooq Abdullah decided to bifurcate the Secretariat by permanently keeping some departments in Kashmir and some in Jammu, the latter saw a bandh lasting nearly 45 days in protest, leading to the government withdrawing its decision.

In the years leading up to the abolition of the Durbar Move, criticism again picked up over the cost involved, with critics questioning the spending of nearly Rs 200 crore on an annual exercise at a time when J&K did not have enough funds to pay salaries to its employees.

What finally led to the abolition of the Durbar Move?

In 2020, following the abrogation of Article 370, the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, while disposing of a PIL, observed that there was “no legal justification… or constitutional basis” for the Darbar Move tradition. Saying that the practice led to wastage of a tremendous amount of time, efforts and energy on an “inefficient and unnecessary activity”, a Division Bench comprising then Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal observed that valuable resources of the State cannot be diverted to “completely non-essential usage” when the Union Territory was unable to provide even basic essentials to its people.

The Durbar Move was formally abolished in June 2021. The administration then identified heads of 56 departments to be primarily located in Srinagar, either in full or as a camp office. The number of HoDs located in Jammu was fixed at 66. The government order also said that it should be ensured that “for an HoD stationed at one location, the next-ranked officer is available at the other location”.

Since then, only senior bureaucrats of the level of Commissioner or Secretary and above move between Jammu and Srinagar. Most of them sit in Jammu during the winters and Kashmir during the summers.

A switch was also made to online mode for paperwork, with then J&K Chief Secretary B V R Subramanyam saying this would check the wear and tear of office records during the biannual transit.

Why did parties promise restoration of the Durbar Move during the elections?

While more departments were allotted to Jammu, the province saw a loss of business after the abolition of the Durbar Move, as that entailed benefits to many in one or the other form, be it hoteliers, or private house owners giving their property on rent, transport firms etc.

In the absence of any local tourism, Jammu used to be mainly dependent on the arrival of people from Kashmir during the winters and the pilgrims coming to the Vaishno Devi shrine. While the former was hit after the end of the Durbar Move, the numbers staying in Jammu have taken a beating after opening of direct train routes to Katra.

The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the main body of traders and industrialists of the region, has been seeking that the Durbar Move be resumed. Chamber president Arun Gupta said: “When the capital shifted, with the Secretariat and other office employees, their families and relatives came from snow-bound Kashmir Valley and stayed here for months.”

 What changes after the October 23 order?

Apart from Administrative Secretaries moving between the two capital cities, now the heads of various departments will also be shifting.

Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Arun Gupta said that after the order, “nearly 60-70% of the Durbar Move” is back, and hoped that the government would extend it to all government employees.

Now that the UT also has its first government after the abrogation of Article 370, the offices of the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and MLAs are also expected to shift seasonally, along with the Assembly. Arun Sharma