Former bureaucrats, military offices move Indian SC over abrogation of Article 370 in Occupied Kashmir

Petitioners termed the presidential order on abrogation of Article 370 as constitutionally invalid.

New Dehli (Web Desk) – Indian retired bureaucrats and military officers on Saturday moved the Supreme Court of India challenging the Presidential decree changing the special status of Occupied Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 and 35A by Modi’s BJP government, Indian Media reported.

As per details, petitioners challenged the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganizataion Bill and expressed that scrapping the special status of the valley is constitutionally invalid.

Six petitioners, including former Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak and Retired Major General Ashok Mehta, have moved the Supreme Court challenging the J&K Reorganisation Bill & the abrogation of Article 370. https://t.co/Sw7HI7YjZw

— ANI (@ANI) August 17, 2019

The petitioners include former Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, Retired Major General Ashok Mehta, former IAS officers Hindal Haidar Tyabji, Amitabha Pande and Gopal Pillai, and former member of the Home Ministry’s Group of Interlocutors for J&K Radha Kumar. The petition has been drawn by advocates Arjun Krishnan, Kaustubh Singh and Rajalakshmi Singh and settled by Senior Advocate Prashanto Sen.

Terming the presidential order on abrogation of Article 370 as constitutionally invalid, the petition states that a presidential order under "Article 370(3) of the Constitution requires the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir to recommend a presidential notification under Article 370(3) declaring that Article 370 shall cease to be operative".

"The Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly no longer exists and thus could not have made a recommendation to that effect," the petition states.

The petition describes the amendments "as striking at the heart of the principles on which the State of J&K integrated into India, especially as they had no affirmation/sanction from the people of J&K which, according to the petition, is a constitutional imperative as far as the State of J&K is concerned."

Speaking of the amendments, the petition states that the alteration which says that the "legislative assembly of J&K doesn’t have the power to alter state’s relationship with India on account of Article 147", it said, "has the effect of undermining the very basis on which the state of J&K had integrated into India".