Articles 35A, 370 required to be scrapped: N Santosh Hegde

Hyderabad: Retired Supreme Court judge N. Santosh Hegde Tuesday said Articles 35A and 370, giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, are required to be scra-pped as they run counter to the rights of other states.

He said in 1948 when the Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to merge the state of Kashmir with India, certain assurances were given to the people by introducing Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution.

Though the wording of this looks like the assurance is “permanent”, in the background in which it was given and the consequential things that have happened in the nation indicate it’s not possible to continue these articles because if Kashmir is an integral part of India, it can’t have a separate status compared to other states, he said.

“So, in today’s context both the articles are causing a lot of problems for the country as a whole”, the former Solicitor General of India said in an interview. “So, I don’t think it’s possible to continue that article”.

He said “today’s situation” requires those articles to be scrapped because certain autonomy given under that Act would run counter to the rights of other states.