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| Temporary relief to supporters of Article 35-A | | | The way the Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35-A is not only a victory for the people, who threatened to lodge protests, but to the state Government which had filed a petition arguing in favour of the adjournment of the petition challenging the validity of Article 35-A on the plea that the ULB and the Panchayat elections are to begin in the stste from September onwards. In fact the Supreme court held the argument quite valid because the Judges feared the state may be engulfed by violence. The Supreme Court has adjourned hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of Constitution, which gives permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir certain privileges and deny settlement rights to other Indian citizens.
A two-judge Bench adjourned the hearing after counsel for state of Jammu and Kashmir requested the top court to adjourn the hearing in view of the ongoing preparations for rural and urban local body polls in the state. The Centre once again said an interlocutor had been appointed and talks were going on for a peaceful solution. Attorney General KK Venugopal also talked about preparations for local body elections in the state, which is currently under Governor's rule. A Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar said a three-Judge Bench would decide if the matter needed to be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench. CJI Misra said under Article 145 of the Constitution any challenge to validity of a constitutional provision was required to be examined by a Constitution Bench. He said the Constitution Bench would have to examine if Article 35A violated basic structure of the Constitution or not.
Well Monday's judgement, adjouring the hearing may provide a temporary relief to the people who support retention of Article 35-A. It is so because the Court has announced that the next hearing may be started on August 26. Amid protests by National Conference and PDP in favour of Article 35A of the Constitution, the Jammu and Kashmir Government had on Friday written to the Supreme Court requesting it to defer the August 6 hearing on petitions challenging the controversial provision in view of upcoming panchayat and urban local body polls in the state. In a letter written to the Supreme Court Registry, the state government's counsel M Shoeb Alam said he would be seeking adjournment of the case on Monday, "on the account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/urban local body and municipal elections. The objections raised from the state Government were "upheld by the Apex Court. |
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