New DelhiThe Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Central and Jammu and Kashmir governments’ response on a plea seeking declaration that the Constitution’s Article 35A was unconstitutional as it deprived the generations of outside settlers in the hill state their right to property and employment under the State Government
Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state
A bench of Chief JusticeDipak Misra, Justice A.m. Khanwilkarand Justice D.y. Chandrachud tagged the plea with similar petitions pending hearing. However, it posted the matter for hearing on May 14 after senior counsel Ranjit Kumar pointed out that the petitioners needed some interim relief.
The petitioners have contended that the President could not have amended Article 35 by incorporating Article 35A through a presidential notification.
Article 35A bars all, other than the original inhabitants of the state, from owning immovable property, settling, getting jobs under the State Governmentor availing state scholarship.
The petitioners also included some of the 272 sanitation workers who had in 1957 moved from Gurdaspurand Amritsarin Punjabto settle in Jammuto work as sweepers in the wake of an indefinite strike by the employees of the Jammu Municipal Corporation.
The petitioners contended that they represented the subsequent generation of the settlers who had gone to the hill state at the instance of the J%26k Government
The petitioners, the PIL says, were born in J&K and have been permanently residing and living in the State.
The PIL has contended that the denial of right to settle in the state and avail facilities available to original inhabitants was violative of the Constitution’s Article 14, 15, 16, 21 and 32 as well certain clauses of Articles 19 and 29.
“The denial of right to seek admission in state-funded higher technical educational institutions, denial of right to get state scholarship and… denial of opportunity of employment in the State Servicesand public sector undertakings and local bodies under the state government, denial of right to acquire and hold property for the purpose of shelter and settlement and denial of remedy of judicial review under impugned Article 35A, to the descendents of a 272 persons… has rendered the life of each one a without any meaning of being a human…,” says the PIL.
Petitioners Radhika Gill, Eklavya and Vijay Kumar — residents of Valmiki Colony, Gandhi Nagar, in Jammu — challenged the validity of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954 on the ground that it violated their right to life, right to equality, right to non-discrimination, right to equality of opportunity in public employment and right to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India.
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