SRINAGAR: Right Wing activist Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has filed a new petition before the Supreme court challenging Article 35(A) of the Constitution of India. The case was listed for admission on Monday afternoon, at around 2 PM, sources said.
“Now we are told the counsels of the petitioners have told the court that for some reason, they will not be able to appear before the court today so even the admission stage stands deferred,” state law secretary told Kashmir Life. “Now it will have a new date on which the court will decide about its admissibility.”
Officials believe, the court is likely to annex the fresh petition with many others pertaining to the same subject.
“The main petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on August 31,” a senior law department official said. “But the exact date will only be known on Wednesday,” he said.
Meanwhile, most of the business establishments have been closed in south Kashmir Anantnag (Islamabad), Kulgam, Pulwama and partly in Srinagar districts as some social networking sites reported the Article 35A is listed for today, reports said.
An eyewitness informed Kashmir Life, “Students in Degree college Islamabad came out of the main campus of the college and started sloganeering.” Stone pelting was reported from Pulwama town as well.
In Safakadal area, Gaw Kadal, Abi Guzar areas of Srinagar unknown persons made public announcements from a local masjid that hearing of 35A is scheduled today at 2 pm and after that shopkeepers started closing their shops and traffic got affected on roads.
After the rumour spread, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq reached out to the public through his twitter account and tweeted “A confusion is being created among people about the hearing of the case pertaining to Article 35A in the Indian Supreme Court for today. In this regard, what has been reported in the media, is that a fresh case has been filed challenging Article 35A in ISC. This has nothing to do with…” The Mirwaiz has later deleted the tweet. Efforts to reach him failed.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Police have also issued a statement reading, “Some sections of media circulated news regarding scrapping of an article 35A.T he news is refuted as baseless. People are requested to maintain calm and not to pay heed to the rumour. The main hearing is on the 31st of August.”
