Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government has revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.A petition has been moved in the Supreme Court challenging the Presidential notification on the revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. The petitioner Advocate M L Sharma Tuesday claimed that the process adopted is unconstitutional.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah Monday announced that the government had scrapped the special status granted to the state of Jammu and Kashmir by modifying Article 370 of the Constitution. With special provisions gone, Indian laws will now apply to the proposed Union Territories.
By changing the interpretation of certain terms that find mention in Article 370, Monday’s Presidential order, through Article 367, alters the interpretation of the special provision. However, the President draws the power to issue such a notification from Article 370 itself. Article 370 sub-clause 1(d) empowers the President to extend provisions of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir.
The Presidential order also requires the concurrence of the government of the state. However, since Jammu and Kashmir is currently under Governor’s rule, Governor Satya Pal Malik’s concurrence is deemed to be the government’s concurrence.
Advocate Aman Hingorani, an expert in Kashmir constitutionalism, said that since the Governor is appointed by the President, this concurrence could be held invalid.
The Rajya Sabha on Monday approved the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill that bifurcated the state into two union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature similar to Puducherry, and Ladakh without one like Chandigarh. Follow LIVE Updates
The Bill was passed with a two-thirds majority of the members present in Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, the statutory resolution scrapping the special status was passed by a voice vote in the evening.
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who tabled the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 and the statutory resolution in Rajya Sabha around 11 am after the Union Cabinet met at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence at 9.30 am to give the go-ahead, said: “Article 370 was a temporary provision… how long can a temporary provision be allowed to continue… After the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir will truly become an integral part of India.”
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The Bill has met with fierce opposition from the Congress and PDP leaders. National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said the government’s decision to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories felt like “your body was being carved”.
“Yeh maine Hindustan nahin dekha. Maine kabhi yeh Hindustan nahin dekha. Yeh Hindustan hum sabka Hindustan hai, Hindu ho, Muslim ho, Sikh ho, isai ho, yeh sabka Hindustan tha. (I have never seen this India. This India is of all of us. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs) he said.
