New Delhi, August 5
As the BJP-led NDA Government abolished the J&K special status, legal experts said decision was in accordance with provisions of the Constitution and it can withstand any possible legal challenge.
“The government is perfectly within its rights to end the special status as Article 370 itself empowered the executive to repeal or modify the provision. They are not required to follow the Article 368 route, generally used to amend the Constitution,” senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh said.
Singh recalled how the Rajiv Gandhi government had in 1986 extended Article 249 to J&K. He said Article 370(3) empowered the President to declare that the Article shall cease to operate or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify. On bifurcation, he said under Article 3 of the Constitution, Parliament had powers to do so.
Constitutional expert Rakesh Dwivedi too didn’t find any fault with the government’s “historic” move. He said Article 35-A was a discriminatory provision as it allowed the J&K Assembly to define “permanent resident” of the state and gave them special rights since 1954.
Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said “nothing revolutionary had been done”. Laws not applicable to the state so far would now be applicable, he said, referring to earlier provisions of Article 370 that provided that the state Assembly had the powers to enforce or not enforce the central law in J&K. — TNS
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2YOfrBP
via Today’s News Headlines
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