SC: Article 370 not a temporary provision

NEW DELHI: The Centre asked for and received three weeks time from the Supreme Court on Tuesday to respond to a petition challenging the validity of Article 370 of the Constitution that confers special status on the state of Jammu and Kashmir, even as the top court said that the issue needs no consideration because a 2016 judgment had settled the issue.

A bench of justices AK Goel and Rohinton Nariman told the petitioner’s lawyer that a 2016 judgment had held Article 370 was not a temporary provision. “The issue is already decided in our judgment where we have said that despite the fact the head note says it’s a temporary provision, it’s not,” Justice Nariman told the petitioner’s counsel, Anil Kumar Jha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been consistent in its opinion that Article 370 should be scrapped, although the BJPled National Democratic Alliance government informed Parliament last month that there are currently no plans to do so.

Justice Nariman was part of the bench led by Justice Kurien Joseph that in December 2016 said: “Despite the fact that it is, therefore, stated to be temporary in nature, sub- clause (3) of Article 370 makes it clear that this article shall cease to be operative only from such date as the President may by public notification declare. And this cannot be done under the proviso to Article 370 (3) unless there is a recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State so to do,” the judgement said.

Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta asked the court to tag Jha’s petition with those challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution. Added to the Constitution through a Presidential order of 1954, Article 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir assembly to define the state’s permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.

Jammu and Kashmir government counsel senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan and Shoeb Alam objected to this after which Mehta was given time to come back with a formal response.

Even Jha did not support the Centre’s move. “This is only a delaying tactic,” he said.

BJP IS CONSISTENT IN ITS OPINION THAT ARTICLE 370 SHOULD BE SCRAPPED, ALTHOUGH THE NDA GOVT TOLD THE HOUSE LAST MONTH THAT THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO PLANS TO DO SO