Former Chief Ministers of Jammu Kashmir welcomed the Supreme court’s decision of disregarding Central Government’s fresh affidavit on Article 370, which will be discussed in the apex court on day to day basis starting August 02.
Refuting the claims made the Government over the changes post abrogation, Mehbooba Mufti said that then silence in Jammu Kashmir is enforced. “The Goonda has entered the house and has beat everyone inside, now it is boasting of silence inside the house, ” she said in a reference to BJP’s policy on Kashmir.
She said that nobody is allowed to speak the facts here in Kashmir. “It is not that people are even speaking against the Government. People are not allowed to speak anything other than the government’s narrative, if one does, they are not spared. Even journalists are being booked under the UAPA and Public Safety Act,” she said addressing a press conference in Srinagar on Wednesday.
Claiming that all the laws imposed in Jammu Kashmir post abrogation are all illegal, she said the administration cannot make any laws about Kashmir when the matter related to the constitutional change was pending before a court of law. “The basic premises of law were trampled when Articles were removed in 2019. The court judgement was clear that no changes can be made to 35 and 370 without the recommendations of the constituent assembly of Jammu Kashmir. There was no assembly in Kashmir when the special status was abrogated,” she said.
She referred to a 1968 judgement which said, “There was a special provision for the amendment of Article 370—and that is Article 370 sub-article 3. This says that if you want to use the President’s Notification route—it must be with the concurrence of the Constituent Assembly.”
The former CM referring to another 2018 judgment said, “The SC had said since the Constituent Assembly of the state ceased to exist, the President would not be able to fulfil the mandatory provision of getting its recommendation for the abrogation of Article 370.”
Satyapal Malik, in a recent interview, said that he had received a letter from HM Amit Shah on 4 August 2019 asking him to get the letter of recommendation signed by few people from Jammu Kashmir. He, however, did not name any people. The assembly of Jammu Kashmir was dissolved by the then Governor Satyapal Malik in November 2018.