New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to January 2019 hearing on petitions against Article 35A of the Constitution after both the Centre and the state of Jammu and Kashmir sought deferment citing law and order problem and preparations for local body elections in the state.
Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of J&K and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state. It denies property rights to women marrying men from other states.

Besides being violative of the right to equality and certain other rights, Article 35A has been challenged on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an executive Order without parliamentary approval and that it was to be a temporary provision.

Political parties in the militancy-hit state have been agitating against any possible move to scrap the controversial provision. National Conference and CPI(M) have also moved the Supreme Court in support of Article 35-A.

The deferment order came after Attorney General KK Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on behalf of the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government, respectively, that the case should be adjourned in view of rural and urban local body polls and law and order situation in the state.

The Bench has already indicated that petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A will have to be finally decided by a Constitution Bench. First a three-judge Bench would take up the matter and decide if it needed to be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench, CJI Misra had said on August 6.