The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a fresh petition challenging Article 370, which gives special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said there are already several petitions pending on the same issue and the petitioners’ advocate Vijay Mishra and Sandeep Lamba could get themselves impleaded later on.
One of the main writ petitions pending is by NGO ‘We the Citizens’, which challenges the validity of both Article 35A and Article 370.
It argues that four representatives from Kashmir were part of the Constituent Assembly involved in the drafting of the Constitution and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was never accorded any special status in the Constitution. Article 370 was only a ‘temporary provision’ to help bring normalcy. The Constitution makers did not intend Article 370 to be a tool to bring permanent amendments, like Article 35A, in the Constitution.
The petition said Article 35A is against the “very spirit of oneness of India”. Restricting citizens from other States from getting employment or buying property in J&K is a violation of their fundamental rights, it said.
