Srinagar : In a major policy directive aimed at curbing radical narratives across academic institutions, the Jammu and Kashmir Higher Education Department (JKHED) has issued comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) governing the selection, evaluation, procurement, and retention of educational literature across all university campuses and central libraries in the Union Territory. The framework enforces a complete restriction on any published material that promotes violent extremism, secessionism, or poses a threat to national sovereignty.
Under the new directives, Vice-Chancellor-led Institutional Audit Committees—comprising academic deans, department heads, subject experts, and higher education representatives—will oversee pre-procurement content verification and conduct annual audits of library holdings. The government order explicitly specified, “No publication containing misleading, distorted, unlawful, discriminatory, inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate material, or any content that directly or indirectly promotes, glorifies or legitimizes terrorism, violent extremism, secessionism, radicalization or activities prejudicial to the sovereignty, unity, integrity or security of India, shall be recommended for procurement, circulation or continued retention in the Universities of J&K.”
