President Issues Notification Amending Article 370 To Repeal Special Status Of J&K

Based on the statutory resolution passed by the Parliament recommending the modification of Article 370 of the Constitution, President Ram Nath Kovind has issued a notification in exercise of powers under Articles 370(3) read with 370(1).

The notification declares:

"In exercise of powers conferred by clause (3) of article 370 read with clause (1) of article 370 of the Constitution of India, the President, on the recommendation of Parliament, is pleased to declare that, as from the 6th August 2019, all clauses of the said Article 370 shall cease to be operative except the following which shall read as follows, namely :

Article 370. All provisions of this Constitution, as amended from time to time, without any modifications or exceptions, shall apply to the State of Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding anything contrary contained in Article 152 or Article 308 or any other article of this Constitution or any other provision of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir or any law, document, judgment, ordinance, order, by-law, rule, regulation, notification, custom or usage having the force of law in the territory of India, or any other instrument, treaty or agreement as envisaged under Article 363 or otherwise".

This means the complete scrapping of the special status enjoyed by J&K.

The statutory resolution recommending this was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with 351 to 72 votes. The Rajya Sabha had cleared it on Monday.

According to Article 370 as originally stood, recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of J&K is required for the President to issue notification under Article 370(3) to repeal it.

However, the Presidential Order issued on Monday made a change in Article 367 to state that  'Constituent Assembly' will read as  'Legislative Assembly of the State'.

Since the legislative assembly of J&K is dissolved and the state is under Presidential rule since last November, the recommendation of the Parliament has been treated as the recommendation of legislative assembly by the President to issue yesterday's notification.

Notably, the notification has modified Article 370 to state that all provisions of the Constitution, as amended from time to time, without any modifications or exceptions, will apply to J&K. (Article 370(3) gives President the power to state that the provision "shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify").

The application of Constitution to J&K was by virtue of Article 370(1)(b)(c), which had stated "the provisions of Article 1 and of this article(370) shall apply in relation to that State".

A complete repeal of Article 370 would have therefore meant the non-application of Constitution to it. So, the President's notification has made the modification to Article 370 as stated above.

The Parliament has also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill 2019 to bifurcate the state into Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.