The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would take an “in-chamber” decision on listing a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A, PTI reported. The article, incorporated into the Indian Constitution in 1954, grants special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir.
Such a hearing takes place in the judges’ chambers, as opposed to other hearings in court that are open to public.
Advocate Bimal Roy Jad, who mentioned the matter before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L Nageswara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna, had sought an urgent hearing of a petition filed by non-governmental organisation We The Citizens. Jad said the court last year had ordered that the matter be listed for the second week of January.
A total of four petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of Article 35A on the grounds that it was never presented before Parliament and was implemented on the President’s orders in 1954. The petitioners argue that Jammu and Kashmir became an “integral part of India” when it acceded to the Union, so there is no question of special status or treatment.
The article denies property rights to women who marry citizens from outside Jammu and Kashmir. It also allows the Assembly to define “permanent residents” of the state.
In August last year, the Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing till January after requests from the central and state governments that cited potential law-and-order problems during the panchayat and local body elections in the state.
The Peoples Democratic Party, the National Conference and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had decided not to contest the local body elections over concerns about Article 35A.
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