Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 3: Responding to the controversy raised on Article 370, President, Jammu State Morcha (JSM), Prof Virender Gupta, said the accession of J&K State with Indian Union was because of the Instrument of Accession (IoA) signed by the Maharaja of J&K State and not because of Article 370.
He said that the Article 370 was incorporated in the Indian constitution by the Indian Constituent Assembly later to appease the Kashmiri leadership at that time. As stated in the Assembly the Article was temporary which should cease to exist with passage of time, he added.
Gupta alleged that only political elite class of Kashmir region is benefitted by the Article as they want freedom to behave like autocrats without any checks. The common people are in no way benefitted by the Article, he maintained.
“It is not Modi but Omar Abdullah who is on wrong footings. It is by virtue of Article 370 that the State has its own constitution and residency law is part of the State constitution. The Part III of J&K Constitution lays down that a woman citizen of J&K marrying someone from another State of the Union will not only forfeit her right to be called a ‘daughter of the soil’, but also the right to get a job under the State Government and acquire any immovable property anywhere in the State”, Gupta rued.
However, the Full Bench of the J&K High Court took a holistic view of the issue on October 7, 2002 and pronounced that a female State Subject will not lose her status as a State Subject on marriage to a non-State Subject, he added.
As the HC verdict displeased NC and PDP, a bill was moved in the Legislative Council to nullify its judgment and to deprive the daughters of J&K of their natural right, Gupta alleged.
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