Srinagar: A 2-day shutdown called by Joint Resistance Leadership in support of Article 35A of Indian constitution, affected life across the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday.
Article 35A, incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, confers special status to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, and bars people from outside the state from acquiring any immovable property in the state.
Shops and other business establishments are closed while public transport was mainly off the roads, reports said.
In Srinagar city and other district towns in the Valley, reports and residents said, there has been deployment of government forces at several places to prevent protests.
The strike by the JRL comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik comes as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear various petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A and Article 370 tomorrow.
The state government has filed an application before the Supreme Court, seeking adjournment of the hearing till a elected government is established in the state.
As many as five petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against Article 35A, with the lead case filed in 2014 by a little known Delhi-based NGO, ‘We The Citizens’.
Besides these cases, a Special Leave Petition is also pending disposal before the top court that was filed after Delhi High Court dismissed a plea against Article 370.
“On the day of listing, the undersigned shall be requesting for an adjournment in the mater since presently there is no elected government in the state of J&K and the state is under President’s rule,” reads the state government’s application through its standing counsel advocate M Shoeb Alam.
in the application, the government has said the matter involves a “sensitive issue” regarding a challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution of India. “A short reply has been filed by the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the lead matter (We The Citizens) and notices have not been issued in the other petitions. It will therefore be requested that the matter may kindly be heard when an elected government is in place,” reads the state government’s plea. “The letter may kindly be circulated to the Hon’ble judges so as to avoid inconvenience to them,” the application says.
On July 17, 2018, the Supreme Court had referred the cases to a 3-judge bench. The top court on August 31, 2018, deferred the matter to January 2019 after the Government of India and Jammu & Kashmir, then under governor rule, cited law and order issues and sought deferment of hearings till the local Panchayat and local polls in the state were over.
