Article 370 has not been scrapped. What does Modi govt move on Kashmir mean?

Much against the clamour raised by many Opposition members in and outside Parliament, what Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said in the Rajya Sabha was not scrapping or abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Article 370 is an enabling provision. It explains which parts of the Indian Constitution have jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir, which adopted a separate state constitution for itself during 1950s. Clause 3 of Article 370 empowers the President to decide the limit of the jurisdiction of the Indian Constitution over the state.

Article 370 stays very much as part of the Constitution and cannot be repealed or abrogated without a constitutional amendment in accordance with Article 368. No such bill was moved by Amit Shah in Parliament today.

The government has used the same Article 370 to announce that special status granted under this Article to Jammu and Kashmir has ended. Amit Shah said, "Not all the provisions of Article 370 will now be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir."

This was done through a Presidential Order, which in effect, will supercede previous Presidential Orders issued under Article 370.

In other words, the latest move by the government gives full applicability of the Indian Consitution in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, only a set of limited provisions such as foreign relations, communication and defence had jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir.

This means the separate constitution of Jammu and Kashmir ceases to be in operation in the state. With state constitution rendered inoperative and Articles 1-2 applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, the central government got the power to redraw the map of the state.

Amit Shah, accordingly, moved another resolution for bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. The resolution, if adopted by Parliament, turns the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh respectively.

The Union Territory of Jammu-Kashmir will have a legislature. Its new status will be comparable with that of Delhi and Puducherry, only two other Union Territories to have legislatures of their own. The Governor of Jammu and Kashmir will now become Lieutenant Governor.

Ladakh will have a separate identity as Union Territory much like five other centrally administered areas which don't have separate legislatures of their own. Its status will be comparable with that of Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and others.

The separate Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) will give way to the Indian Penal Code. The separate state constitution allowed a separate penal code for Jammu and Kashmir. With separate constitution gone, the Indian Penal Code will supercede the RPC.

Article 35A, making a distinction between the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and the outsiders, will also cease to have any effect. It remains part of the Constitution as annexure of the Constitution. Its constitutional status - or lack of it -- does not change with the latest move of the Modi government on Article 370.

The sectors of education and employment will open up to all Indians without any discrimination that Article 35 brought by means of the clause of permanent residents. The central quota laws in school-college admissions and state government jobs will apply just like other Indian states.

Purchasing land and owning property by people, considered outsiders till now, would be possible. This was considered a major reason preventing corporates setting up big units in Jammu and Kashmir.

The clause relating to permanent residents deny Kashmiri women, who marry non-Kashmiri men, and their children their right of inheritance. They may now claim inheritance in ancestral property.

The status of Jammu and Kashmir police cadre will be redefined. They may be included in DANIPS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Services) or may be granted a separate status.