Srinagar: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear petitions challenging Article 35A which gives special rights and privileges to Jammu and Kashmir between February 19 and 21st of this month.
The case will be heard by three judges: Chief Justice Ranhan Gogoi and Justices Nageswara Rao and Sanjeev Khanna. The court has cautioned advocates to not seek adjournment in matters listed before the bench.
“It will be appreciated if the advocates on record do not seek adjournment in the matters listed before all the courts in the causelist,” the court said on Friday.
On February 13 and 14, the apex court didn’t hear the case even though it was scheduled to. Also, the J&K state had moved an application for adjournment on the grounds that there was no elected government in place.
Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights, jobs, voting rights and scholarships to non-reidents of the state.
The main petition demanding to scrap Article 35A was filed before the apex court in 2014 by Delhi-based NGO ‘We the Citizens’. Later, a few more petitions were filed to scrap the provision.
