Govt spending lakhs to defend Art 35A in SC

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 28

The cash-starved PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir is spending lakhs on one hearing to defend Article 35A in the Supreme Court.

The BJP is hand in glove with the PDP and is working against its core ideology of “integration” of J&K with the Indian union by scrapping this Article.

The state government has hired four senior advocates of the Supreme Court, including Fali Nariman, a constitutional expert, to defend Article 35A in the Supreme Court. Other three lawyers are Shekhar Naphade, Rakesh Dwivedi and KV Viswanathan.

Sources in the state government told The Tribune that for appearing in the first hearing to defend Article 35A in the Supreme Court, the J&K Government paid Rs 44.4 lakh to these leading lawyers. “Fali Nariman was paid Rs 21.5 lakh, followed by Rs 10.30 lakh to Dwivedi, Rs 8.10 lakh to Naphade and Rs 4.5 lakh to Viswanathan,” said the sources.

“This agreement was struck in December between the J&K Government and the lawyers. The state government, during the Budget session in the Legislative Assembly, had said that the government was committed to defending the case by hiring the services of leading lawyers of the country,” the source said.

The Tribune has in possession the document of memorandum of fee of senior advocates engaged to represent the state in the Article 35A matter, which the standing council for the state of J&K at the Supreme Court had written to the state government.

“There is complete cohesion between coalition partners in dealing with the matter and appointing senior advocates to defend Article 35 in the Supreme Court. The state government enjoys full support of BJP ministers and leaders and it was decided unanimously to hire senior advocates, including Nariman, in the case,” the sources added.