What is Article 35A: An explainer
New Delhi, July 28: After the Centre decided to move additional troops into Jammu and Kashmir, fears that Article 35A may be abolished has risen.
In order to strengthen the Counter Insurgency grid as well as for maintaining law and order situation in J&K, deployment of additional 100 companies of CAPFs are ordered, the Home Ministry said in an order.
What is Article 35A?
The Article empowers the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir to define permanent residents of the state and also provide special rights and privileges to such persons.
Prior to 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state under the British Paramountcy. The people of the princely states were "state subjects", not British colonial subjects. In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the political movements in the state in the early 20th century led to the emergence of "hereditary state subject" as a political identity for the State's people, and the legal provisions for the recognition of the status were enacted by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir between 1912 and 1932.The 1927 Hereditary State Subject Order, passed by the Maharaja due to the pressure of the Pandit community which had launched a "Kashmir for the Kashmiri" movement, granted to the state subjects the right to government office and the right to land use and ownership, which were not available to non-state subjects.
Apprehensions that Article 35A will be abolished rise after more troops moved into Valley
Following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union on 26 October 1947, the Maharaja ceded control over defence, external affairs and communications (the 'ceded subjects') to the Government of India . The Article 370 of the Constitution of India and the concomitant Constitutional Order of 1950 formalised this relationship.
Discussions for furthering the relationship between the State and the Union continued, culminating in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, whereby the governments of the State and the Union agreed that Indian citizenship would be extended to all the residents of the state but the state would be empowered to legislate over the rights and privileges of the state subjects, who would now be called permanent residents.
What
Article
35A
states?
"Saving
of
laws
with
respect
to
permanent
residents
and
their
rights.
-
Notwithstanding
anything
contained
in
this
Constitution,
no
existing
law
in
force
in
the
State
of
Jammu
and
Kashmir,
and
no
law
hereafter
enacted
by
the
Legislature
of
the
State:
(a)
defining
the
classes
of
persons
who
are,
or
shall
be,
permanent
residents
of
the
State
of
Jammu
and
Kashmir;
or
(b)
conferring
on
such
permanent
residents
any
special
rights
and
privileges
or
imposing
upon
other
persons
any
restrictions
as
respects-
(i)
employment
under
the
State
Government;
(ii)
acquisition
of
immovable
property
in
the
State;
(iii)
settlement
in
the
State;
or
(iv)
right
to
scholarships
and
such
other
forms
of
aid
as
the
State
Government
may
provide,
shall
be
void
on
the
ground
that
it
is
inconsistent
with
or
takes
away
or
abridges
any
rights
conferred
on
the
other
citizens
of
India
by
any
provision
of
this
part."
Objections
to
Article
35A:
It facilitates the violation of the right of women to 'marry a man of their choice' by not giving the heirs any right to property, if the woman marries a man not holding PRC. Therefore, her children are not given Permanent Resident Certificate and thereby considering them unfit for inheritance - not given any right to such a woman's property even if she is a permanent resident.
It facilitates the free and unrestrained violation of fundamental rights of those workers and settlers like Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people who have lived there for generations. The Valmikis who were brought to the state during 1957 were given Permanent Resident Certificates on the condition that they and their future generations could stay in the state only if they continued to be safai-karmacharis (scavengers). And even after six decades of service in the state, their children are safai-karmacharis and they have been denied the right to quit scavenging and choose any other profession.
The industrial sector & whole private sector suffers due to the property ownership restrictions. Good doctors don't come to the state for the same reason.
Children of non-state subjects do not get admission to state colleges.
10,000 additional forces to be moved to J&K: Is Article 35A set to go?
It ruins the status of West Pakistani refugees. Being citizens of India they are not stateless persons, but being non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, they cannot enjoy the basic rights and privileges as being enjoyed by permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
It gives a free hand to the state government and politicians to discriminate between citizens of India, on an unfair basis and give preferential treatment to some by trampling over others, since the non-residents of the state are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.