National Conference leaders move SC against revocation of Art 370

National Conference MPs, Mohd. Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masood, on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the August 5 presidential prder by which Article 370, granting special status to the Jammu and Kashmir, was revoked and sought a declaration that it be declared as illegal and unconstitutional.

They also challenged the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act of 2019 by which the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories and sought a direction to declare it as "unconstitutional, void, and inoperative".

This is the fourth petition filed in the top court on the revocation of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir. The NC leaders said that they MPs and as citizens of India they are aggrieved by the Presidential orders.

"Presidential Order uses Article 370(1)(d) - which was meant to apply other provisions of the Constitution to the state of Jammu and Kashmir - to alter Article 370 itself, and thereby the terms of the federal relationship between the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India," the plea said.

"Presidential order having been passed during an extended period of President's Rule, it substitutes the concurrence of the Governor for that of the Government (and effectively, therefore, amounts to the Central Government (acting through the President) taking its own consent (under President's Rule) to change the very character of a federal unit," it added.

The petition contended that the Presidential order takes cover of a "temporary situation", meant to hold the field until the return of the elected government, to accomplish a fundamentally, permanently, and irreversibly alteration of the status of the Jammu and Kashmir without the concurrence, consultation or recommendation of the people of state, acting through their elected representatives.

This amounts to an "overnight abrogation of the democratic rights and freedoms guaranteed to the people of the Jammu and Kashmir upon its accession".

The right to autonomous self government and the right to an identity within the federal framework are fundamental rights flowing from the right to life and other provisions contained in Part III of the Constitution and their removal in a manner that has made a mockery of the "procedure established by law" is clearly in violation of fundamental rights and ought to be struck down forthwith, plea added.

Earlier this week the Supreme Court had declined to grant an urgent hearing to a petition filed by a Delhi based lawyer challenging the revocation of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir.

Another petition had sought withdrawal of curfew and other restrictions including blocking of phone lines, internet and news channels in the state. On Friday a Kashmiri lawyer had approached the apex court against Presidential order and sought direction to prevent all forms of human rights violation in the state.