No intention to touch any special provisions applicable to Northeast: Centre tells SC

Centre tells Supreme Court that it has no intention to touch any special provisions applicable to North Eastern states or other parts of the country.

Recording this statement made by the Centre, the Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant disposed of an intervention application filed by an Arunachal Pradesh politician.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta made this statement in response to submissions made by Senior Advocate Manish Tiwari, who, representing a politician from Arunachal Pradesh, voiced apprehensions about taking away the special provisions applicable to North Eastern states in the manner in which Jammu and Kashmir's special status was repealed. He pointed out that like Article 370, there are provisions in the Constitution like Article 371 and the 6th Schedule which envisage special provisions for North Eastern states.

"Hence, it is submitted that the interpretation by this court in 370 would impact other provisions. SG has submitted on specific instructions of Union that Union Government has no intention to affect any of the special provisions applicable to North east or any part of India", Chief Justice of India said in a statement.

It needs mention here that the Supreme Court on August 22 termed as “unacceptable” the submission that Article 370 of the Constitution ceased to operate once the term of the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ended in 1957 after drafting the State’s Constitution.

Senior attorney Dinesh Dwivedi argued that nothing of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile State, survived once the Constitution of J&K was enacted on January 26, 1957, and the term of the State's constituent Assembly ended. This statement was made by a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

On August 5, 2019, the Centre decided to strip the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir of special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories. By abrogating Article 370, the Central Government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Several petitions challenging the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, were referred to a Constitution Bench in 2019.