SRINAGAR: The moderate separatist leader and cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Thursday said Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir and can’t pass judgements on the State as Kashmir is a disputed territory, which is acknowledged in United Nations resolutions.
“Kashmir issue is accepted as a human and a political issue at the international level and its disputed nature cannot be altered by any decision of courts of India including Supreme Court as is being attempted by the government of India,” Mirwaiz said while addressing a seminar organised by J&K High Court Bar Association on the International Human Rights Day, here today.
He said no court including Supreme Court of India has jurisdiction to comment on Kashmir dispute. “It has no authority to pronounce any verdict on Kashmir because the UN resolutions acknowledge the disputed nature of the state”.
“Conspiracies are being hatched to divert and dilute the Kashmir issue by resorting to legal ways in the form of PILs against Article 370 and 35-A,” Mirwaiz said addingIndian Judiciary can’t pass their comments or judgments on Kashmir.
Supreme Court is hearing a petition seeking scrapping of Article 35-A, which debars a non-state subject from purchasing land or immovable property, getting government job or vote in the assembly elections in J&K.
The petition has been filed Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre, a Delhi-based think-tank said to be close to the RSS.
Mirwaiz said Kashmiri issue was not a territorial dispute or any issue pertaining to any political party or any leader but a political and human issue that has a legal and historical background that is accepted at the international level.
Terming Kashmir as the core issue between India and Pakistan, which had kept the two countries in a confrontation mode for the past seven decades, Mirwaiz said other issues like Siachen and Sir Creek were the derivatives of this basic issue.
He welcomed resumption of India, Pakistan talks saying “Hurriyat has always stood for meaningful talks between the nuclear neighbours and believes that Kashmir issue can only be resolved through dialogue”.