INDIA’S SC MUST UNDO MODI GOVT’S MOVE TO USURP KASHMIRIS’ RIGHTS

WebDesk August 3, 2023 2 minutes read

The Indian Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to IIOJK. A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandra Chunder will conduct a day-to-day hearing from 2nd August.

The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant fixed 27 July as the deadline for filing written submissions and convenience compilations by different parties. The five-judge bench had said the hearing will be held on a day-to-day basis except on Mondays and Fridays, which are days for hearing miscellaneous matters in the apex court. Only fresh petitions are taken up on these days for admission hearing and regular matters are not heard. The Narendra Modi-led Indian government had repealed the special status of IIOJK on 5^th August 2019 by revoking the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and put the territory under military siege. Several petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 were referred to a bench of the apex court, the same year. The motive behind abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A was to change the demography of the territory and turn it into a Hindu state. The abolition of special status was followed by coercive administrative steps which include domiciles to thousands of Indian Hindus, amendment in land laws and setting up of soldiers’ colonies in the territory. These all steps are aimed at settling Hindus in Kashmir and turn Muslims into a minority. The suspension of Kashmir’s semi-autonomy also allowed Indians from elsewhere to buy land and claim government jobs in the territory, a policy denounced by critics as “settler colonialism”.