Supreme Court to hear plea seeking omission of Article 35A on Monday

The plea challenges the constitutional validity of Article 35A that empowers the J&K Assembly to define 'permanent residents' for bestowing special rights and privileges to them.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a petition seeking the scrapping of Article 35A in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. The plea challenges the constitutional validity of Article 35A that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to define 'permanent residents' for bestowing special rights and privileges to them.

The top court will hear the plea three weeks after the case was adjourned. The state government had earlier moved an application and sought to defer the hearing of the case, citing upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections.

While Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 35A disallows people from residing, buying or owning immovable property, settle permanently, or get state government jobs in the state.

A non-governmental organisation, We the Citizens, filed a petitioned in the Apex Court in 2014 to abolish the law on the grounds that it was "unconstitutional".

There are apprehensions, amongst sections of Kashmiris, that if the law is repealed or diluted, outsiders would settle in Jammu and Kashmir. 

(With inputs from ANI)