Kashmiri Pandit body moves SC in support of Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370

The intervention application filed by 'Youth 4 Panun Kashmir' contended that the "majority" of Kashmir valley never had faith in the Indian Constitution and Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution helped them in the separatist movement. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena.

New Delhi:A Kashmiri pandit organization, 'Youth 4 Panun Kashmir', Thursday moved an intervention application before the Supreme Court supporting the Centre’s 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.

The plea contended that the "majority" of Kashmir valley never had faith in the Indian Constitution and Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution helped them in the separatist movement. It said that on the contrary, Article 370 and Article 35A became a major reason for eroding the sentiment of Indian identity within the Kashmir Valley.

The plea argued that the petitioner strongly feels that Article 370 and Article 35A were the biggest reason for the lack of psychological integration of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India and became a breeding ground for separatist ideas leading to the ethnic cleansing of innocent Kashmiri Pandits.

The application also urged the top court to recognise the atrocities committed against Kashmiri Pandits and the inaction of the central and State governments in this matter. The petitioner seeks to be heard when a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud begins hearing a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, from August 2.

The plea seeks the dismissal of all petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the declaration of the step as valid and constitutional. The application also seeks to draw the attention of the Supreme Court to the violence and atrocities perpetrated upon Kashmiri Pandit Community between the period of 1989-1991 “as a direct or indirect consequence of unimpeded powers provided to the Jammu & Kashmir State Government vide Article 370 of the Constitution”.

The plea also wants the apex court to take on record “the trials and tribulations faced by the Kashmiri Pandit Community in Jammu & Kashmir and the exodus thereof as a matter of history”. The plea stressed that Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution were complex problems with implications for history, the constitution, politics, society, economy, psychology and human conditions.