The Supreme Court of India has once again adjourned the hearing on a series of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Article 35-A, which protects the state subject laws and special rights and privileges of permanent residents of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The contentious case was heard by the Apex Court as Kashmir valley and Muslim dominated parts of Jammu regions observed a complete shutdown for second consecutive day to defend the constitutional provision that guarantees special rights to the state subjects. The court in its ruling maintained that the next hearing on the case would take place in second week of January next year. The ruling came after the Jammu and Kashmir government requested the court to adjourn the hearing in view of preparations for Panchayat and Municipal polls in the state.
Joint Resistance Leadership had called for shutdown on August 30 and 31 to protest against the attempts by BJP-led government in New Delhi to repeal through its judiciary the Article 35-A of the Indian Constitution which guarantees special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and bars non-Kashmiris from buying property in the territory. On previous hearing the Indian Apex Court had said that it would first decide whether the pleas challenging Article 35-A need to be referred to a five-judge constitutional bench for examining the larger issue.
In 2014, ‘We The Citizens’ filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of the Article 35-A on the ground that it was not added to the Constitution following the procedure prescribed in the Article 368 of the Indian Constitution. In Kashmir, the attempts to change/alter the article 35-A of the Indian constitution is seen as a part of grand conspiracy to further erode the State’s autonomy. Given the New Delhi’s notorious past track record of eroding the constitutionally guaranteed status of the region the people of occupied Kashmir are apprehensive that any such move aimed at changing the article 35-A, either through a parliamentary process or judicial order, will open up new doors for Indian establishment to micro manage things and execute its long pending plan to change the region’s demography. Kashmiris’ apprehensions regarding the matter have further mounted soon after BJP government unleashed it’s plan to settle non-Kashmiris in the state. Pakistan foreign office too had expressed its serious concern over the issue and made it clear that this act of bringing material change in the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir is a blatant violation of UNSC Resolutions on Kashmir. Since the people of Kashmir have no access to international community, the onus of responsibility lies with the government of Pakistan to raise the issue vociferously at international level and expose the Indian government’s nefarious designs aimed at changing the demographic composition of the territory. Last time the government led by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sought UN attention towards Indian government’s attempts to change demography of occupied Kashmir and a letter was formally written to the UN secretary general in this regard. Now that a full-fledged/ full-time Foreign Minister has assumed the charge of foreign affairs, there is dire need that the honourable minister should summon a meeting of all stakeholders including the representatives of Hurriyat Conference to evolve a joint strategy to counter Indian plans.
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