BIG NEWS
ARTICLE
370
By Legal Edge
ARTICLE 370 ABROGATION
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
➢ Karkoṭa Empire (625–885 CE) was a powerful Hindu empire, which
originated in the region of Kashmir by Durlabhavardhana.
➢ Shams-ud-Din Shah Mir (reigned 1339–42) was the first Muslim
ruler
➢ Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Kashmir
➢ In 1819, the Kashmir Valley passed from the control of the Durrani
Empire of Afghanistan to the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of the
Punjab.
➢ Hari Singh, who had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1925
➢ On 26 October 1947, Hari Singh acceded to India
INSTRUMENT OF ACCESSION
➢ By Independence Act 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh agreed to accede to the
Dominion of India.
➢ As per this India would have right to frame laws only on three subjects
matter, namely foreign affairs, defense and communications.
➢ This special status took the form of Article 370 in the Indian Constitution.
➢ On January 26, 1950, a presidential order was effected.
➢ Presidential order went into specific subjects within the three broad
categories
➢ Three years later in 1957, the Constituent Assembly of Jammu
and Kashmir adopted its Constitution.
➢ The document made it clear that the state was now an integral
part of India.
➢ The clause 7 of the Instrument of Accession declared that the
State could not be compelled to accept any future Constitution
of India.
➢ The State was within its rights to draft its own constitution
and to decide for itself what additional powers to extend to the
Central Government. Article 370 was designed to protect those
rights.
ARTICLE 370 OF THE CO NSTITUTION
➢ The state assembly could also abrogate the Article 370 altogether, in
which case all of Indian Constitution would have applied to the state.
➢ Constituent Assembly of J&K ratified the accession of the state to India
in 1954.
➢ The net effect was that the Jammu and Kashmir state's residents live
under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship,
ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to
residents of other Indian states.
ARTICLE 35A OF TH E CO NSTITUTION
➢ It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order, i.e.,
TheConstitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 – issued by
the President of India under Article 370.
➢ Article 35A was an article through which Indian citizenship was extended to the
residents of the state and it empowered the Jammu and Kashmir state's
legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special
rights and privileges to them.
➢ The state of Jammu and Kashmir defined these privileges to include the ability
to purchase land and immovable property, ability to vote and contest
elections, seeking government employment and availing other state benefits
such as higher education and health care.
REVOCATION OF TH E SPECIAL STATU S
➢ On 5 August 2019, the Government of India issued a Presidential
Order [The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order,
2019 (C.O. 272)] superseding the 1954 order, and making all the
provisions of the Indian constitution applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.
➢ A further order on 6 August made all the clauses of Article 370 except
clause 1 to be inoperative.
➢ In addition, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 was
passed by the parliament, enacting the division of the state of Jammu
and Kashmir into two union territories to be called Union Territory of
Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
➢ The reorganization took place on 31 October 2019.
WHAT WAS THE PREVIOUS DISTRIBUTION OF J&K
CONSTITUENCIES?
➢ The erstwhile J&K State had an 87-member assembly, with 37
constituencies in the Jammu region and 46 in the Kashmir
division and four in Ladakh. Besides, 24 seats are reserved and
vacant for Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
➢ J&K lost its special status and was divided into two Union
Territories (J&K and Ladakh) after the abrogation of its special
status under Article 370, on 5th August, 2019.
DELIMITATION IN JAMM U AND KASH MIR
➢ On February 4, the three-member J&K delimitation commission
submitted its interim report to its five associate members
➢ The Commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice
Ranjana Desai with Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra
and state election commission K K Sharma was set up on March 6,
2020 and was granted an extension of a year on March 6, 2021.
➢ The J&K Delimitation Commission came into existence under provisions
of Part V of the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act,
2002, passed by the centre in August 2019 along with other J&K-specific
bills.
➢ The exercise is based on the 2011 census.
➢ On December 20, the J&K Delimitation Commission proposed to increase six seats for the
Jammu division and one for the Kashmir division
➢ For the first time, the commission proposed reserving nine seats for Scheduled Tribes (STs) on
the basis of population. Seven seats are proposed for the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
➢ The proposed assembly segments in the Jammu division stand at 43 against 47 in the Kashmir
division.
➢ The Delimitation Commission has changed the maps of all 90 assembly constituencies across
the UT and renamed 28 new constituencies besides reconfiguring or deleting 19 existing
constituencies from the list of the last delimitation conducted in 1995.
➢ Although the tribal community Gujjars and Bakerwals have welcomed the recommendations.
W H A T A RE T HE M A J O R RE C O M M E ND A TI ON S O F J & K D E L I M I TA T I O N
C OM MIS SIO N ?
➢ Increased Assembly Strength: The Commission has, as per the
mandate granted under the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, added
seven assembly constituencies to J&K, increasing its strength
from 87 to 90.
➢ The interim report proposes an increase of six seats for the
Jammu province, taking the number of constituencies to 43, and
an increase of one seat in the Kashmir province, taking the seat
strength to 47, almost bringing the two regions at par with each
other.
➢ Increased Lok Sabha Seats: The Commission has proposed
reframing of Lok Sabha constituencies, with J&K having five
parliamentary constituencies, which included three seats from
Kashmir and two from Jammu.
➢ It will be named Anantnag-Rajouri seat.
ELEC TION S
➢ Jammu & Kashmir held its first
assembly elections in a decade and
the first since the abrogation of Article
370 in 2019. The third and final phase
concluded on 1st October, 2024.
➢ Religious Composition:
➢ Muslims: 68.32%.
➢ Hindus: 28.44%.
