5, ఆగస్టు 2019, సోమవారం

ARTICLE 370 NO MORE



Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday proposed to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir and said the state will be split into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh without one.With this reform, India now has 28 states and 9 union territories.
What is Article 35A
Article 35A of the Indian Constitution empowers J&K legislature to define state's "permanent residents" and their special rights and privileges. The law was inserted in the Constitution through a Presidential order of 1954 instead of a parliamentary amendment under Article 368.
35A is based on Article 370, a temporary and transitional provision that was included in the Indian Constitution, on the terms negotiated between J&K’s popular leader Sheikh Abdullah and the Centre led by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1949.


Permanent residence status
J&K till now defined its permanent residents as “all persons born or settled within the state before 1911 or after having lawfully acquired immovable property and residence in the state for not less than 10 years or prior to that date”. All emigrants from Jammu and Kashmir, including those who migrated to Pakistan, were considered state subjects. The descendants of emigrants were considered state subjects for two generations.
The law prohibited non-permanent residents from settling permanently in the state, acquiring immovable property, government jobs, scholarships and aid.
Good news for Kashmiri women
The law was discriminatory against the J&K women. It disqualified them from their state subject rights if they married non-permanent residents. But in a landmark judgment in October 2002, the J&K high court held that women married to non-permanent residents will not lose their rights. However, the children of such women don't have succession rights as of now.
Article 35A was also challenged by Kashmiri women married to ‘outsiders’ arguing that the state's permanent residency law, flowing from 35A, had disenfranchised their children.
What is Article 370?
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a 'temporary provision' which grants special autonomous status to Jammu & Kashmir. Under Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with "Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions", the state of Jammu & Kashmir has been accorded special status under Art370. All the provisions of the Constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to J&K. For example, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for governor and prime minister in place of chief minister.
History of Article 370
After J&K's accession, National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah (in pic) took over reins from Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh and in 1949, he negotiated the state's political relationship with New Delhi, which led to the inclusion of Article 370 in the Constitution.
Sheikh Abdullah had argued that Article 370 should not be placed under temporary provisions of the
Provisions of Article 370
According to this article, except for defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, Parliament needs the state government's concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus the state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians. As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other
What will happen to J&K and Ladakh now
After Kashmir's special status is gone, people from anywhere in India be able to buy property and permanently settle in the state. This has fuelled fear in the mind of Kashmiris — they think it would lead to the state's demographic transformation from majority Muslim to majority Hindu.
A separate Union Territory will be created for Jammu & Kashmir with legislature, Amit Shah has revealed via a notification. "Keeping in view the prevailing internal security situation, fuelled by cross-border terrorism in the existing state of Jammu & Kashmir, a seperate Union Territory is being created", the notification said.
Under the notificaiton, the Ladakh region is also being given the status of a Union Terrority, without legislature. "The Ladakh division has a large area but is sparsely populated with a very difficult terrain. There has been a long-pending demand of people of Ladakh to give it a Union Territory status to enable them to realise their aspiration", it said.
Terror trail
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday urged Amarnath Yatra pilgrims to "curtail" their stay and leave the state at the earliest, citing intelligence reports of terror threats. The move by the government came after security forces found a Pakistan-made mine, an M-24 American sniper rifle and a huge cache of arms along the route of the annual pilgrimage. The yatra to the holy Amarnath cave in the mountains of south Kashmir started on July 1 and is scheduled to end on August 15.
Five pilgrims, all belonging to Rajasthan, were injured in a grenade attack by terrorists in 2006. According to media reports, a bus carrying 40 passengers was targeted while returning to Srinagar from Baltal base camp. The Srinagar-Baltal road, which is the main route that pilgrims take, was closed following the attack. However, no outfit claimed responsibility for the attack.

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