OdishaPlus Bureau
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government has abolished Article 35A and Article 370, which give a special status to Jammu & Kashmir. Here is all that you wanted to know about both these constitutional provisions:
Article 35A
This provision of the Constitution allows the Jammu & Kashmir state Assembly to define who is and is not a “permanent resident” of the state. To further break it down, this provision of the Constitution gives the legislators from Jammu & Kashmir the exclusive power to determine as to which people in or outside the state will have special rights and privileges granted by the state. The provision, inserted through special Presidential order in 1954, also gives the state Assembly powers to determine the recipients of state grants, the right to purchase land and property in the state, as well as for settling permanently in the region. Other than this, the legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir can use the provision to restrict rights of any person not classified under “permanent resident” of the state.
Article 370
Article 370, which has been the bone of contention between the state’s politicians and the central BJP leadership, deals with special powers conferred upon the state of Jammu & Kashmir. It allows the state constituent Assembly to make its own Constitution, thereby giving it an “autonomous state” power. After the accession of the state to India in 1947, Article 370 served as a “mechanism for managing Centre-state relations with specific reference to Jammu & Kashmir. Apart from the autonomy, Article 370 also lends other powers such as the need for “concurrence of the state government” if the central government plans to make amendments to the concurrent list of subjects.