Srinagar, 31 August 2018: Complete shutdown was observed on the second consecutive day in whole Kashmir on the petitions filed against the Article 35A in the Supreme Court of India. The shutdown call which was given by Joint Resistance Leadership comprising of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik paralyzed the life in the Kashmir valley straight second day. All business establishments, schools colleges and universities in the valley remain closed.
Attendance of government employees across the Kashmir valley remains affected due to non-availability of public and private transport in the valley. All the exams of the Kashmir University and other universities which were scheduled today were also postponed. Train service remains suspended continuously for two consecutive days in the valley.
Restrictions were imposed on the second consecutive day of the several areas of the summer capital of Jammu And Kashmir State. In areas of Khanyar, Rainwari, Nowhatta, Maharaj Gunj, Safa Kadal, Kralkhud and Maisuma restrictions were imposed to maintain law and order situation in the city, police said.
In the sensitive area of the valley heavy deployment of Police and Paramilitary forced were put in place to maintain law and order situations.
Today during the hearing of petitions against the Article35A, the Supreme court of India deferred the hearing of petitions against the Article35A till the second week of January 2019. the three-judge Bench of Justice headed by Chief Justice of India Deepak Mishra after hearing the arguments of petitioners and the counsels for the defendants; the J&K Government and the Attorney General, Government of India deferred the hearing of case till 2nd week of January 2019 said Mir Javid to Kashmir News Service (KNS), one of the members of the Civil Society Group accepted as an intervener in the case.
The counsel of J&K Government Shoaib Alam had filed an Application a day before the today’s hearing of this crucial case to seek an adjournment of the case because of the Proposed Panchayat and Municipal elections in the state. Moreover, the PDP-BJP collation before their break up in J&K State had filed an affidavit to a sought dismissal of the petitions as the matter has already settled by the Supreme Court.
It should be noted that the deferring of the hearing of petitions against the Article has been taking place three times this month. The first petition against the Article 35A was filed in 2014 by Delhi based Non-Government Organisation “ we the Citizens” giving the reason that the given Article was not added in the Constitution following the procedure prescribed in Article 368 of the Indian Constitution.
After the deferment of hearing of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A Hurriyat (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday praised the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their resilience and stand up against the ‘assault on our identity.’
Mirwaiz wrote on the twitter account
“Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) commends the people of J&K for their exemplary resilience and steadfastness in firmly standing up against the deliberate assault by anti-Kashmir organisations and agencies on our identity and struggle for self-determination through demographic change, by challenging the hereditary state subject law in Indian Supreme Court. These designs will always meet their Waterloo by the unity, resilience and courage of the people of J&K,”
With inputs from Greater Kashmir and Kashmir News Service
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