NC, PDP join Article 35A protests
The BJP has also said that Article 35A is against the fundamental rights as defined in the Indian Constitution.
Article 35A guarantees special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. It also empowers the state legislature to define such “permanent residents”. It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954 issued by the then President in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 370 of the Constitution, with the concurrence of the government of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 370 guarantees a special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union.
A three-bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing on a petition seeking removal of Article 35A on August 6. The petition filed by an NGO, ‘We the Citizens, believed to be an RSS think-tank, in 2014 challenges 35A on grounds that it was not added to the Constitution through amendment under Article 368 and that it was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately.
In another case filed in the SC in July last year, two Kashmiri women argued that the state’s laws, flowing from Article 35A, had disenfranchised their children.
The Supreme Court was also hearing yet another plea challenging the validity of Article 370.
The petition challenged the April 11, 2017 order of the Delhi high court rejecting a plea saying nothing survives in it as the Apex Court has already dismissed a similar prayer on the issue. The SC has clubbed all these petitions in one and has listed it for hearing on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
The State government has moved an application in the SC seeking adjournment of hearing on the bunch of petitions which challenge the constitutional validity of Article 35A and Article 370.
The J&K law department has in its plea submitted through its counsel sought adjournment in hearing of the petitions in the Apex Court in view of a possible law and order situation and citing upcoming Panchayat and urban local body elections in the State. “On the account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/urban local body and municipal elections,” the State government is seeking an adjournment of hearing in the case, a letter from Shoeb Alam, counsel for Jammu and Kashmir government, to the registrar of the SC sent on Friday said.
J&K is under Governor’s rule since June 20 after the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government collapsed as the BJP walked out of its alliance with her Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Governor, N.N. Vohra, is also learnt to have written a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, saying that the issue of Article 35A should not be dealt with till a popular government has been formed.
While an alliance of key separatist leaders has called for a two-day strike across the State from Sunday over the alleged “onslaught” against Article 35A, Ms. Mufti had on Friday warned that fiddling with J&K’s special status would have “catastrophic ramifications” for the entire country. “Today people cutting across party lines and other affiliations are united in their fight against dilution of Article 35A. As I have already stated before, fiddling with J-K’s special status will have catastrophic ramifications for the entire country,” she wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com.
In another tweet, she had said, “My father (former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) took great pride in the special status that J-K enjoys under Article 370. He would often mention that while people of the State have made great sacrifices for larger goals, we need to safeguard what we already have.”
The NC has filed an intervention plea in the SC seeking to be included as respondents in the petition challenging Article 35A. “We filed the intervention plea in the SC in reiteration of our commitment to fight against all machinations aimed at fiddling with the State’s special status and unique political identity,” the party’s provincial (Kashmir) president Nasir Aslam Wani said. He added that the NC “will fight this battle from the forefront and will do everything necessary to safeguard the State’s special status and political rights”.
The NC has deputed Mr. Wani along with a team of lawyers to explore all possibilities to defend Article 35A and other constitutional provisions guaranteeing special status to J&K in the Apex Court. He said that the NC has “retained a comprehensive and competent legal representation and would represent facts and legalities in the matter in a comprehensive and substantial matter in view of apprehensions of a half-hearted attempt by the government to defend Article 35A”.
“We will make our case in the SC in light of the constitutional facts through which the State negotiated its accession with the Union of India – after having acceded to the Union in extraordinary circumstances,” he said adding “We are keeping a close eye on developments regarding this matter and as respondents will represent the aspirations and sentiments of the people of the State as effectively and resolutely as possible”.
NC’s office-bearers and workers led by its general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar on Saturday took out a protest march in Srinagar against the “onslaught” on Article 35A. The participants demanded quashing of the petitions filed in the SC against Article 35A and Article 370.
Their counterparts from the PDP too marched along the streets of summer capital saying that Article 35A is the “only bridge” between J&K and rest of the country and that “forces in New Delhi are trying to break this bridge”.
Earlier this week CPIM’s Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami also filed an intervention application in the pending writ petition in the SC saying that Article 35A “shall in no circumstance be annulled, modified or repealed”. The party has also opposed the relief sought in the writ petition and asserted that the unity in diversity of India is to be protected and that the special status guaranteed to J&K under the Constitution of India which has “assumed the permanent feature of the same requires protection as any alteration would be against the policy of federalism envisaged by the framers of Constitution.”
As the mainstream and separatist parties, civil society groups, traders’ bodies and other outfits alike have come together and upped the ante in the run up to the SC hearing the petition challenging Article 35A, the CPIM also on Friday said it would support and join ongoing peaceful protests in the State in support of the Constitutional provision.
Independent MLA and leader of Awami Itehad Party (AIP) Engineer Rashid has also vowed to defeat what he alleged are conspiracies being hatched against Article 35A and other related provisions. “The conspiracy against 35A is just to make Kashmiris defensive, but people of the State are united in defending its special status till the Kashmir issue is permanently resolved,” he said while speaking at a protest rally. He added, “Let New Delhi resolve Kashmir by fulfilling the commitments made with Kashmiris at United Nations and if people of the State vote in favour of India, then the Government of India may abrogate all those articles which grant special status to J&K”.
Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq while leading a protest outside Srinagar’s historic Grand Mosque asked the people to make the two-day shutdown from August 5 in support of Article 35A a “grand success”. He once again warned of a mass agitation from August 6 itself if any ruling comes against the Article 35A. “The programme is clear and people should make the shutdown a grand success. If any ruling comes against the Article 35A the people of Jammu and Kashmir will start a mass agitation from then and there,” he said. The shutdown call has been issued by ‘Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL),’ the alliance of key separatist leaders including the Mirwaiz.
The BJP and like-minded parties and groups, on the other hand, maintain that protraction of Article 35A in the Constitution depends upon the judgment of the SC and wishes of the people of the country as a whole. “The decision of the SC must be acceptable to all,” BJP state general secretary Ashok Kaul said. He added, “The decision of the Supreme Court will be supreme for all of us.”
The BJP has also said that Article 35A is against the fundamental rights as defined in the Indian Constitution. “Even permanent resident, as defined in the J&K Constitution is not only against the fundamental rights but is also discriminatory against the fair gender. Such laws should not sustain and remain in any civilised country,” the party’s State spokesperson Virender Gupta said earlier. End it