Explained: All you need to know about Darbar Move – the 149-year-old bi-annual shifting of J&K capitals that is now halted

Police personnel in ceremonial uniforms in front of the Civil Secretariat complex on the first day of the Darbar Move in Srinagar on May 9, 2011 (File image: Reuters/Fayaz Kabli)

In 1872, powerful Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranbir Singh began a tradition, which appears to have come to an end in 2021.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on June 30 cancelled the allotment of residential accommodations of Darbar Move employees in Jammu and Srinagar- the winter and summer capitals of the Union Territory (UT).
The employees have been given 21 days to vacate their accommodations.

This may, as well, mean an end to the 149-year-old bi-annual tradition of Darbar Move – the shifting of the civil secretariat between Srinagar and Jammu, which involved moving truckloads of official files along the Jammu-Srinagar highway, apart from the movement of government officials.

The June 30 directives, by the Union Territory’s (UT’s) Estates department, have been issued in continuation to the earlier government orders about deferring of the Darbar Move in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read: Delimitation Commission, CEC Sushil Chandra to visit Jammu & Kashmir on July 6

Moneycontrol explains the history of significance of the Darbar Move in Jammu and Kashmir:

What is the Darbar Move tradition?

Darbar Move is the traditional practice of shifting the Civil Secretariat and other government offices of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir twice a year between Srinagar and Jammu.

Usually as summer sets in, offices in Jammu close in the last week of April to reopen in Srinagar in the first week of May. Similarly, with the onset of winters, offices shut down in Srinagar in the last week of October to reopen in Jammu in the first week of November.

Also read: Analysis | What happened at PM Modi's meet with J&K leaders, what next

The tradition of switching the capitals twice a year is believed to have been started during Dogra rule in 1872 by Maharaja Ranbir Singh, who ruled Jammu and Kashmir from 1856 until his death in 1885. This tradition continued non-stop until last year, when only some officers and offices were shifted from Jammu to Srinagar in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why are the capitals being shifted?

Jammu is the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, while Srinagar is its summer capital. The Dogra rulers, who hailed from Jammu, but expanded their boundaries to Kashmir including the present-day Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Ladakh, started this practice because of the climatic, topographic, linguistic, and cultural differences of the three erstwhile regions of Jammu and Kashmir.

Historians say that the main aim of the Darbar Move was to escape the extreme weather conditions - Jammu’s searing heat and Srinagar’s bitter cold. Some say that the move began with the intention of taking the administration to the doorstep of the people of Kashmir and Ladakh in the north. The administration in Kashmir would ensure adequate supplies to Ladakh, which is closer to Kashmir than Jammu, before the winter snowfall that cuts off Ladakh, India’s highest plateau, now a separate Union Territory since 2019.Also read - Explained | Delimitation in J&K: Here's all you need to know about the exercise

What is the process?

As per the traditions, the secretariat would function for six months each in Jammu (November to April) and Srinagar (May to October). This meant around 10,000 employees working in the Civil Secretariats would move along with truckloads of files through the 300-km long treacherous Jammu-Srinagar highway twice every year. Effort apart, the exercise would cost the government nearly Rs 200 crore. Apart from the expenses incurred on transportation, the moving staff also used to be paid travel fares, besides arrangements for their accommodation.

Why was the move being criticised?

This exalted tradition faced its first criticism in the 1980s over the expenses and time involved. But it also enjoyed public support as it helped in generating economic activity in both Jammu and Srinagar and would act as a bridge for the two culturally and linguistically different regions. In 1980s, the then government of Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, had to withdraw its decision to bifurcate the secretariat permanently, keeping some departments in Kashmir and some in Jammu, after it led to a 45-day long strike in Jammu.

The criticism, however, re-emerged in recent years with the matter reaching the courts. The Jammu & Kashmir High Court in 2020 observed that there was no legal justification or constitutional basis for the Darbar Move tradition. A division bench comprising the-then Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal, while pronouncing its judgment in response to a public interest litigation (PIL), ruled that the Darbar Move resulted in the “wastage of tremendous amount of time, efforts and energy on an inefficient and unnecessary activity.”

What happens now?

In April this year, the Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, deferred the biannual Darbar Move to Srinagar in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, the UT administration shifted its mode of working to e-Office, enabling officials to work from both the Jammu and Srinagar Civil Secretariats without having to move the files physically, unlike in the past. Only the important files were physically moved, while other files were shifted using e-Office facilities.

In the latest directives issued on June 30, officials who were allotted around 2,198 flats and quarters – 1,737 in Jammu and 461 in Srinagar - have been directed to vacate the accommodations within 21 days.

“In pursuance of the previous government orders, sanction has been accorded to the cancellation of allotment of residential accommodations of officers at Srinagar who are stationed in Jammu and of those officers whose accommodation is at Jammu but are stationed at Srinagar,” the order issued by the J&K Estates department said.

Apart from this, the UT administration has not issued any official instruction on ending the 149-year-old tradition so far.

The order, however, does not affect administrative secretaries and senior officers as they must make themselves available at both the places equitably. On April 25, the government had identified 673 officials to work in Jammu and 863 in Srinagar, five days after it deferred the Darbar Move, saying that the civil secretariat shall continue to function simultaneously at Jammu and Srinagar, according to a report in the The Indian Express.