Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 7
Charu Wali Khanna — an advocate hailing from Jammu and Kashmir who had challenged the validity of Article 35A — on Wednesday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to pre-empt the possibility of any ex parte order being passed on the PIL against Presidential Order making Article 370 inoperative.
Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to “permanent residents” of J&K and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state. It denies property rights to woman marrying men from other states. This legal disability also applies to heirs of such women.
Khanna — a former member of the National Commission for Women — had moved the SC against Article 35A in 2017 after the J&K Government refused to identify her as a “permanent resident”. Her petition has become infructuous as the provision has now been abrogated.
She filed the caveat – which ensures that no order is passed in a case unless the litigant filing the caveat is heard – after advocate ML Sharma challenged the Presidential Order on Article 370 revoking the special status given to J&K. She has filed the caveat in Sharma’s matter.
Sharma contended that the Presidential Order was “illegal, unconstitutional, and void ab initio and ultra vires to the Constitution” as it was passed without taking consent from the state Assembly.
Passed under Article 370(1) of the Constitution, ‘The Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order, 2019’ amends Article 367 which lays down the rules of interpretation of the Constitution by inserting clause (4) applicable to the state of J&K.
Article 370 — a temporary provision of the Constitution empowered the President under clause (3) of the Article to abrogate or modify it with the concurrence by the Constituent Assembly of J&K. Since the Constituent Assembly of the state was dissolved in 1956, the clause (4) added to Article 367 says that the expression “Constituent Assembly” in Article 370(3) should be read as “Legislative Assembly”.
This Presidential Order made it possible to introduce the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Bill, 2019, dividing the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday, the Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The government has issued a notification declaring Article 370 inoperative.
CHALLENGED 35A IN 2017
- Charu Wali Khanna — a former member of the National Commission for Women — had moved the SC against Article 35A in 2017 after the J&K Government refused to identify her as a ‘permanent resident’
- Her petition has become infructuous as the provision has now been abrogated
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2YTximM
via Today’s News Headlines
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