• The Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond to a petition challenging the continuing validity of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution giving special autonomous status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

• A Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, Justices A.K. Goel and D.Y. Chandrachud issued notice to the Centre on the petition filed by Vijayalakshmi Jha pointing out that Article 370 was a “temporary provision.”

• The petition asked the Supreme Court to clarify if Article 370 was supposed to have lapsed automatically with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir on January 26, 1957.

• It asked whether the J&K Constitution, which neither got the mandatory assent or approval of the President of India was valid at all.

• The petition pointed to clause (3) of Article 370, which said it was up to the President to declare whether the Article should cease to exist or continue to be operative. For this, the President would have required the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of J&K.

• However the institution had been dissolved. The petition contended that the special autonomous status is violative of Article 1 of the Constitution which envisages that “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”

Article 370:

• Article 370 of the Indian constitution is an article that grants special autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The article is drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions. The State’s Constituent Assembly was empowered to recommend the articles of the Indian constitution to be applied to the state or to abrogate the Article 370 altogether. After the state Constituent Assembly has dissolved itself without recommending abrogation, the Article 370 was deemed to have become a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution.

• This was a “temporary provision” in that its applicability was intended to last till the formulation and adoption of the State’s constitution.

• However, the State’s constituent assembly dissolved itself on 25 January 1957 without recommending either abrogation or amendment of the Article 370.

• Thus the Article has become a permanent feature of the Indian constitution, as confirmed by various rulings of the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, the latest of which was in October 2015.

Provisions: 

• According to this article, except for defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, Parliament needs the state government’s concurrence for applying all other laws.

• Thus the state’s residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

• As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir.

• Under Article 370, the Centre has no power to declare financial emergency under Article 360 in the state.

• It can declare emergency in the state only in case of war or external aggression.

• The Union government can therefore not declare emergency on grounds of internal disturbance or imminent danger unless it is made at the request or with the concurrence of the state government.

Source:TH