Srinagar, Oct. 14 -- A full bench of J&K high court on Monday set December 4 as the date for hearing the batch of petitions against government's decision to forfeit 25 books in J&K. In August, the J&K government's home department had issued a notification for "forfeiture" of the 25 books written by some prominent and acclaimed authors, political scientists and historians, including AG Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Sumantra Bose, Sugata Bose, Christopher Snedden and Victoria Schofield for allegedly propagating "false narrative and secessionism" in J&K. Most of these books are written on Kashmir conflict, politics, history and human rights. The special bench of chief justice Rajnesh Oswal and justice Shahzad Azeem considered the pleas filed by one of the affected authors David Devadas, CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak and others and set December 4 as the date for the final hearing. "The special bench constituted by the HC immediately issued notice on Monday, which is the first step in commencing the case. The court has now fixed the matter for final hearing and arguments on December 4," one of the petitioners' advocate, Soutik Banerjee, said. Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the petitioners to approach the J&K and Ladakh HC, following which a full bench was constituted on September 30. The government ordered the forfeiture of the books under section 98 of Bharatiya Nagrika Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The books include The Kashmir Dispute: 1947-2012 by AG Noorani, Contested Lands and Kashmir at Cross Roads by Sumantra Bose, In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir by David Devadas, A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir after Article 370 by Anuradha Bhasin and Kashmir and the Future of South Asia by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. Books by foreign authors or international publications include Kashmiri-American author Hafsa Kanjwal's Colonizing Kashmir: State-building Under Indian occupation, Haley Duschinski and others' Resisting Occupation in Kashmir, Victoria Schofield's Kashmir in Conflict, Christopher Snedden's Independent Kashmir, and two books by by Piotr Balcerowicz and Agnieszka Kuszewska - Law and Conflict Resolution in Kashmir and Human Rights Violations in Kashmir. The forfeited books also include Between Democracy & Nation: Gender and Militarisation in Kashmir by Seema Kazi, Do you Remember Kunan Poshpora? by Essar Batool and Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women's Activism in Kashmir by Ather Zia. The publication of Jamaat-e-Islami founder Moulana Abul A'la Maududi Maududi's Al Jihad fil Islam and Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna's Mujahid ki Azan are also on the list....