JKPC moves SC against abrogation of Article 370, President''s Rule in J-K

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 14

The Sajjad Lone-led Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC) has moved the Supreme Court challenging the President’s Rule imposed in Jammu and Kashmir and abrogation of certain provisions of Article 370, ending the special status of the state.

A Presidential Order issued last month paved the way for the application of the entire Constitution of India in Jammu and Kashmir, nullified Article 35A and abrogated crucial provisions of Article 370. President Ram Nath Kovind had on August 9 given assent to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act envisaging bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh—which will come into existence on October 31.

Filed by JKPC spokesman Adnan Ashraf, the petition demanded that the abrogation of certain provisions of Article 370 and the President’s Rule in the state be declared unconstitutional. It sought a direction to declare the state’s bifurcation and the presidential orders as “unconstitutional and void”, being violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

Earlier, the National Conference had moved the top court against the changes effected in the Constitutional status of the state. NC Lok Sabha MPs Mohammad Akbar Lone and Justice Hasnain Masoodi (retd) had filed the NC’s petition. Lone is a former Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly while Masoodi is a retired judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Massodi had ruled in 2015 that Article 370 was a permanent feature of the Constitution.

There are certain other petitions as well against change in the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, including the one by former interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir Radha Kumar, former IAS officers Gopal Pillai and Amitabha Pande and certain retired defence officers; and another one by former BBC Correspondent Satish Jacob and Kashmiri writer Inderjit Tickoo.

In its petition, the JKPC said the state had been under President’s Rule since June 2018 and routine decisions of the state government are taken by the Governor, who himself is a delegate of the President.

“Therefore, concurrence of the state government provided by the Governor, does not express the will of the people, as the Governor is merely substituting for a popularly elected government, as an emergency measure under Article 356 of the Constitution. The imposition of President’s Rule for the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India was an illegal and unconstitutional exercise of Article 356 of the Constitution,” it submitted.

The Jammu and Kashmir governor kept the entire nation in the dark. The country was not informed that such a drastic action against the interest of the state was being taken, it contended.

JKPC challenged the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act saying, “The entire state, particularly the Valley, was put under curfew and then only those COs were passed and the impugned legislation was enacted.”

“Never ever in the history of the nation reorganisation under Article 3 has taken place which shows a blatant attack on our Constitution and the freedom of people of a state,” it added.

The party said Jammu and Kashmir had a separate Constitution and Parliament had a limited scope to enact legislation for the state. Therefore, by a parliamentary act, the powers given to the state by its own Constitution could not have been abrogated by merely taking away Article 370 by the impugned legislation, it said.