Govt moves application seeking adjournment of SC hearing on Art 35-A

Srinagar, Aug 03: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking adjournment on hearing the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A, which grants special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Shoeb Alam, the standing counsel for J&K at the Apex court, filed the application.
Referring to the multiple petitions challenging Article 35-A in the Court, Alam, in the application said: The undersigned will be seeking an adjournment in the aforesaid matters on August 06, 2018 on account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming Panchayat/Urban local body and municipal elections in the state…
As many as five petitions demanding scrapping of the provision are listed for hearing on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
The main petition was filed by a Delhi-based NGO “We the Citizens”. Later, three petitions filed by West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee, Dr Charu Wali Khanna, and Kali Dass were clubbed together.
The pleas have challenged, among others, certain provisions of Article 35A which deny property rights to a woman from J&K who marries a person from outside the state.
Article 35A was added to the Constitution of India by a Presidential Order in 1954.