The state government on Friday said it would request the Supreme Court on Monday to adjourn the hearing on Article 35A, citing preparations for upcoming panchayat and urban local bodies (ULBs) elections as the reason.
Government’s standing counsel in the apex court Shoeb Alam submitted before the court’s registry that he will be seeking adjournment of the case on Monday, when the case comes for hearing.
“The undersigned will be seeking an adjournment on account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/municipal elections in the state of J&K. The letter may be kindly circulated to the judges so as to avoid any inconvenience to them in reading their briefs,” reads the letter circulated by Alam.
According to the practice of letter circulation, the counsel/parties seeking adjournment of the matter that is in the final cause list have to submit a letter/request to different parties and the court’s registry two days before the hearing.
Interestingly, the state has not invoked absence of elected government in J&K as reason for seeking adjournment of proceedings of the case. The petition challenging the Article 35A is listed before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra on Monday.
The case is listed at serial number 6 before the bench, reveals the cause list issued by the apex court registry.
This newspaper had last week exclusively reported that Governor NN Vohra is seeking deferment of the case.
Vohra had discussed the matter with Union Home minister Rajnath Singh and conveyed to him that the case should not be heard during Governor’s rule.
The Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and confer special rights and privileges on them. The special provision was added to the Constitution of India through a presidential order on May 14, 1954.
In the past three weeks, different mainstream parties and civil society groups have urged the Governor to get the hearing deferred till a democratically elected government is in place in the state.
Citing local bodies polls, J&K Govt seeking adjournment of Article 35A hearing
