SC to hear plea challenging Article 35A after Diwali

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear challenge to the Constitution’s Article 35A and the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution’s Section 6 granting special rights and privileges to natives of Jammu and Kashmir but denying to a woman who marries a non-Kashmiri and her children.

“All the pleas will be taken up for hearing after Diwali,” said a bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Dipak Misra and Justice DY Chandrachud after senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, who mentioned the matter, also pointed out that the Central government too had no objection.

Charu Wali Khanna has moved the top court challenging the provisions which deal with “permanent residents” of the state and their special rights and privileges.

In the course of the hearing on August 14, the bench of justice Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar had said that the challenge to the validity of the constitutional provisions would be heard by a five judge constitution bench, only if it was satisfied that the provision was violative of the Constitution’s “basic structure”. SEPARATISTS SUSPEND PROTEST OVER ART 35A Separatist leaders in Kashmir have suspended their protest programme, including the August 29 strike, called after the Supreme Court accepted J&K’s plea to defer the hearing of petitions calling for scrapping of Article 35-A.

Following a plea by J&K government, the Supreme Court will now hear the petitions after Diwali. A three-member bench was scheduled to hear the case on August 29.

Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik said the protests ghave been called off as the SC has postpostponed the hearing.