By Sumit Saxena
New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap said technically the government has done the right thing to scrap Article 35A which was brought on board through a Presidential order under Article 370.
Article 370 gives autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking to IANS, Kashyap said the government has technically used the right legal channel to scrap Article 35A , which grants special privileges to the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir, and apparently viewed by many as a provision discriminating against the citizens of other states.
"The state was under President's rule with Assembly being dissolved. The government acted very swiftly in establishing a fine balance between Article 370(3) and Article 371 of the Constitution."
Article 370(3) of the Constitution says notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this Article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause ( 2 ) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification.
"In the perspective of this Article 370(3), Parliament has the legislative authority over the state in the absence of state Legislative Assembly. Therefore, there is no need to amend the Constitution to scrap provisions of Article 370", added Kashyap.
Article 371 grants special provisions to some states to protect the economic and cultural essense of the region and combat the local challenges affecting law and order, and also protect the customary laws of that region. "The government will introduce bills in Parliament to change the nature of the state to Union Territory and then it will go through the due parliamentary process", said Kashyap.
(Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in)
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