What is Article 370 and Article 35A, which Modi govt revoked

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday proposed in the Rajya Sabha to revoke Article 370, Article 35A of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, ending the special status to the state.

WHAT IS ARTICLE 370?

Article 370 specifies that except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancillary matters (matters specified in the Instrument of Accession), the Indian Parliament needs the state government's concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus, the state's residents lived under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

Similar protections for unique status exist in tribal areas of India, including those in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Nagaland. However, it is only in the case of Jammu and Kashmir that the accession of the state to India is still a matter of dispute between India and Pakistan, still on the agenda of the UN Security Council and where the Government of India vide 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord committed itself to keeping the relationship between the Union and Jammu and Kashmir within the ambit of this Article.

What is Article 35A?

Constitution of India 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 a 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 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.