Hearing On Article 370 In Supreme Court: Article 35A of the Constitution, which gave special rights to the permanent residents of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, actually took away all the fundamental rights of the people of India. The Supreme Court made these remarks on Monday (August 28) during the hearing of the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.
A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjay Y. Chandrachud said Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a presidential order in 1954, deprived people of at least three fundamental rights.
Take away these three fundamental rights
1- Equality of opportunity for all citizens in public jobs under Article 16(1)
2- Article 19(1)(f) and 31 Acquisition of properties under
3- Right to settle in any part of the country under Article 19(1)(e)
The bench observed that the Constitutional Order of 1954 applied Part III (dealing with fundamental rights) to Jammu and Kashmir but in the same sequence, Article 35A was created which took away three valuable fundamental rights of the people by making exceptions in three areas . The bench comprises the Chief Justice as well as Justice Sanjay Krishna Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Bhushan R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant.
What is Article 35A?
Under Article 35A, special rights were given to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. With this, the state legislature got the right to make such laws, which could not be challenged on the ground of violation of right to equality of people of other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution.
Article 35A was added to the Constitution using the powers conferred under Article 370. With the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, 35A was also repealed.