In News:

• CJI N.V. Ramana said that the SC could consider listing, after summer vacations, the petitions challenging the abrogation of special status of J&K under Article 370.
  
  

What’s in Today’s Article:

• Abrogation of Article 370 – About, steps taken to abrogate Article 370
  
  
• Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission – About, Recommendations, criticism
  
  
• News Summary
  
  

Abrogation of Article 370

• On August 5, 2019, the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and the state was split into two union territories.
  • Article 370 grants autonomous status to J&K.
    
    
  • Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954, provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state.
    
    
  
  
  

Steps taken to revoke the special status

• On August 5, 2019, the President of India issued the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, pursuant to article 370(1) of the Constitution.
  
  
• The order supersedes the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, which defined the constitutional position of J&K vis-à-vis the Indian Union.
  • The 1954 order added Article 35A, which allowed special privileges to the state’s ‘permanent residents’, as defined by the J&K legislature.
    
    
  • The new Presidential order, therefore, essentially scraps Article 35A.
    
    
  
  
  
• Clause 3 of Article 370 — which allows the President to revoke Article 370 in consultation with the “constituent assembly of the state” — was also amended by the 2019 order.
  • The amendment substituted the expression constituent assembly of the state” with legislative assembly of the state.
    
    
  
  
  
• In nut shell, the government did not directly rely on article 370(3) to abrogate other articles.
  
  
• It sought to use its powers under article 370(1) to amend article 367, the interpretation clause of the Constitution, so that
  • References to “Government of the State [Jammu and Kashmir]” in article 370 would be construed as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, and
    
    
  • Expression “Constituent Assembly of the State” in article 370(3) will be read as referring to the current legislative assembly of Kashmir.
    
    
  
  
  

Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission

• In March 2020, the government of India set up a Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai.
  • Delimitation is redrawing of boundaries of an assembly or Lok Sabha constituency.
    
    
  • It is done to reflect the demographic changes in a state, Union Territory or at the national level.
    
    
  • The Delimitation Commission is a panel set up with legislative back up and is independent of the government and political parties in its functioning.
    • According to Article 82 of the Constitution, Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after Census that is held every 10 years.
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Recommendations of J&K Delimitation Commission

• The report maintains the number of Lok Sabha constituencies at five.
  
  
• However, it increased the assembly seats from the present 83 to 90 (adding six in Jammu and one in Kashmir). 24 seats will be kept aside (and vacant) for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
  
  

Criticism of the draft proposal

• The draft proposals evoked a strong reaction, especially from the opposition parties whose dissent note pertained to different assembly constituencies.
  • As per them, the criteria for allocation of Assembly constituencies or delimiting the constituencies and drawing boundaries is arbitrarily fixed and selectively applied.
    
    
  
  
  
• They have also challenged the very constitution of the panel, pending the Supreme Court verdict on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.
  
  
• It is being claimed that the present delimitation exercise is neither in tune with the Constitution nor in consonance with the law.
  
  

Background:

• In 2019, several petitions were filed in SC challenging the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of the Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act.
  • The Reorganisation Act splits J-K into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
    
    
  
  
  
• These petitions were referred to a Constitution Bench headed by Justice N V Ramana in 2019 by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
  
  
• The case has not come up after a five-judge Bench led by Justice Ramana, in an order in March 2020, refused to refer the petitions to a larger Bench.
  
  

News Summary

• The Supreme Court may hear a batch of petitions - challenging the law used to scrap Article 370 - after the summer holidays.
  
  
• The Article 370 case had been pending in the SC for more than two years.
  • A separate challenge has also been filed against the Centre’s decision to appoint a Delimitation Commission to redraw Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies of the UT of J&K.