The Government of India on August5, 2019, revoked Article 370 which accorded special status to then state of Jammu and Kashmir. Included in the Indian Constitution on October 17, 1949, Article 370 permitted the state to draft its own Constitution and enjoy special rights. J&K citizens lived under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property and fundamental rights. The Central government further bifurcated the state into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. The Union territory of J&K has a legislature where key subjects such as law and order are with the Centre, while that of Ladakh has no legislature. Following the scrapping of Article 370, an uneasy calm prevailed in the Valley with restrictions on public movement and communication network.
In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the representatives to the Constituent Assembly requested that only those provisions of the Indian Constitution that corresponded to the original Instrument of Accession should be applied to the State and that the state’s constituent assembly, when formed, would decide on the other matters. Government of India agreed to the demands shortly before the above meeting with the other states. Accordingly, the Article 370 was incorporated into the Indian Constitution, which stipulated that the other articles of the Constitution that gave powers to the Central Government would be applied to Jammu and Kashmir only with the concurrence of the State’s constituent assembly. 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 was considered to have 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 April 2018.
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