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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