HC rejects plea challenging validity of special status to J-K

The Delhi High Court today rejected a plea challenging the validity of Article 370 of the Constitution giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying nothing survives in it as the Supreme Court has already dismissed a petition on the issue.
The order was passed by a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath.
The court had reserved its verdict on the plea in March last year.
The petitioner Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha had claimed that the issue raised before the high court was different from the matter which was put before the apex court.
She had contended that Article 370 was a temporary provision that had lapsed with the dissolution of the state's Constituent Assembly in 1957.

The petition had said that the continuance of the temporary provision of Article 370 even after dissolution of Constituent Assembly of J&K, and that of J&K Constitution which has never got the assent of the President of India or Parliament or the Government of India, "amounts to fraud on the basic structure of our Constitution".
In July 2014, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea challenging the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir and had asked the petitioner to move the high court.