About Article 370 in Indian Constitution: Here is how it got permanent status

New Delhi : The long awaited Article 370 has acquired permanent status in the constitution of India. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court said it is impossible to abrogate Article 370 conferring special status on Jammu and Kashmir, because it has acquired permanent status through years of existence. The observation came from a bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and R F Nariman.

Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, who wanted a statement that Article 370 was a temporary provision that lapsed with the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1957, and the Constitution of J&K was null and void, out of order and violate the Constitution.

During the court hearing, Justice Nariman reportedly pointed out that the Supreme Court’s 2017 judgment in State Bank of India vs Santosh Gupta case and  mentioned that the controversy associated with Article 370 was settled down by the top court, which had ruled that the provision had acquired permanent space in the Constitution and it could no longer be abrogated.

The issue is likely to have political importance as there is a sharp deviation between the views of Bharatiya Janata Party which is the ruling party at the Centre and its partner Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, Advocate general Tushar Mehta said the Centre would study the implication of the 2017 judgment.

Last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Central government was not considering scrapping Article 370. “There is currently no such proposal under consideration of the government,” replied Minister of States for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir in the Lok Sabha on the question of scrapping Article 370.

Moreover, a previous record says that BJP in its 2014 manifesto of Lok Sabha elections had promised to scrap Article 370.