WP (C) No. 279/2025 Serial No.15 Regular list IN THE HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT SRINAGAR WP (C) No. 297/2025 CM No. 685/2025 Cats Eye Production and others ….. Petitioners Through: - Ms. Syed Ainain Qadiri, Advocate. V/s Union Territory of J&K and others ….. Respondents Through: - Mr. Hakim Aman Ali, Dy.A.G. CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE JAVED IQBAL WANI, JUDGE ORDER (ORAL) 17.02.2025 1. In the instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners herein have prayed for the following reliefs:- (a) The respondents be directed to release the due amount of the incentives in favour of the Petitioners-Production Houses forthwith as spelt out in paragraph 6 of the instant writ petition or as per the Amended Rule 14 of the Tourist Village Development Scheme Guidelines. (b) The respondents be further directed to release the withheld incentives along with interest at the rate of 18% from the date of submitting the documentaries/music videos till its final realization, together with exemplary costs and damages of Rupees five lakhs each for loss, inconvenience, harassment and mental agony suffered by the petitioners due to lackadaisical approach of the respondents by not releasing incentives due to the petitioners within time. 2. The aforesaid prayers have been made on the premise that the Department of Mission Youth , Union Territory of the Jammu and Kashmir, had launched a Mission Youth Scheme in order to provide a platform for holistic implementation of youth engagement and outreach initiatives and to bring the interests and empowerment of the youth to the Centre of policy making with an idea to facilitate the promising innovators in exhibiting their WP (C) No. 279/2025 talent and excelling in their areas of interest by providing them with institutional support and financial assistance. 3. It is stated that, in furtherance of the said Scheme, the petitioners produced various documentaries/music videos, identifying the New Tourist Destinations in order to carry out the object of the Scheme before the respondents, including various authorities of the Union Territory of J&K granting necessary requisite permissions to the petitioners in this regard and upon completion of which, the petitioners submitted the said documentaries/music videos before the respondents along with statement of expenses incurred thereon, certified by Chartered Accountants and raised demands for payment of such expenses incurred by the petitioners. 4. 4. It is stated that in the meantime, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mission Youth, being Respondent No.3 herein affected changes vide Order No. FDMY/35/2021 dated 18.08.2021 in the provisions of the Scheme with regard to the incentives which change provided payment of an amount of Rupees 8.00 to 10.00 lakhs as support for shooting of songs and films in the Tourist Villages notified under the Scheme and that the petitioners pursuant to the said changes in the Scheme re-lodged their claims for the release of incentives in their favour from the respondents and though various inter se communications came to be addressed by the official respondents in this regard, yet the respondents failed to disburse the amount of incentives in favour of the petitioners herein against the expenses incurred by them in the execution of the Scheme, compelling the petitioners to approach this Court through the medium of instant writ petition. 5. Learned counsel for the petitioners while making her submissions in line with the case set-up in the instant petition would pray for disposal of the instant petition at this stage with a direction to the respondents 2 to 4 to WP (C) No. 279/2025 redress the legitimate and genuine grievance of the petitioners regarding the release of the withheld amount of the incentives without any further delay within some specified period. 6. Mr. Hakim Aman Ali, Dy.AG, present in the Court enters appearance and submits that he is not averse to the disposal of the instant petition at this stage, however, would submit that the case of the petitioners will be considered on the touchstone of rules governing the field. 7. Having regard to the aforesaid respective submissions of learned counsel for the parties, inasmuch as, the issues involved in the petition, it is deemed appropriate to dispose of the instant petition at this stage with the consent of the appearing counsel for the parties. 8. Accordingly, the instant petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents to accord effective consideration to the claim of the petitioners and release the incentives in terms of the Scheme both un-amended and amended, whichever is applicable, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of eight weeks from the date a copy of this order is produced by the petitioners before the respondents 2 and 3. 9. Disposed of along with the connected CM. (Javed Iqbal Wani) Judge SRINAGAR 17.02.2025 “Abdul Rashid” Whether approved for reporting? Yes/No