SRINAGAR: Ahead of the August 31 hearing in Supreme Court on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A, National Conference has hired services of former Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium to defend in apex court Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special privileges to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The NC president and three-time Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah held detailed discussions with senior lawyers in Delhi on petitions challenging the State's special status (Article 35A) in the Supreme Court. Abdullah met former Solicitor General of India, Advocate Gopal Subramanium in New Delhi yesterday and engaged him to represent the party's intervention plea in the petition challenging Article 35-A in the Supreme Court," a spokesman of National Conference said.
Besides being former Solicitor General of India, Advocate Subramanium is also the ex-chairman of Bar Council of India and has been a part of numerous landmark cases in the country.
On hiring the services of Advocate Subramanium, Abdullah, who is also MP from Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, said his party was committed to defend the State's special status at every juncture and would fight the battle to uphold the State's political identity and rights at all costs.
The Supreme Court would be hearing the petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A on August 31.
Article 35A, which incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, bars outsiders from purchasing land and property in the State and bars them from J&K government jobs and scholarships.
The mainstream parties including National Conference, Congress, PDP, separatist groups, Kashmir-based legislators, traders, lawyers, civil society members, Sikh groups and academicians have vowed to oppose any tinkering with Article 35A with tooth and nail.
Even the BJP MLA from Jammu and civil society members, traders and lawyers from Jammu have also come in support in continuation of Article 35A. The BJP MLA Dr Gagan Bhagat has even threatened that if Article 35A was scrapped, the people of Jammu would take to guns and pelt stones.
The separatists have called for a two-day State-wide shutdown on August 30 and 31 to oppose any tinkering with the law.
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