Supreme Court Issues Notices To Centre, Jammu and Kashmir For Release Of Farooq Abdullah

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir for release of National Conference Chief Farooq Abdullah. Hearing the Habeas plea filed by MDMK chief Vaiko, the Supreme Court asked both the Modi government and J-K govt whether Farooq Abdullah is under any kind of detention. The top court has directed the Centre to present the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on September 30. The plea was heard by a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S A Bobde and SA Nazeer. Vaiko is said to be a close friend of Abdullah for the past four decades. He has said that constitutional rights conferred on the National Conference leader had been deprived of on account of "illegal detention without any authority of law".

Tensions are high in Kashmir after New Delhi abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories on August 5. On the day Parliament was debating the abrogation in New Delhi, Abdullah appeared before media in Srinagar. That was the only time he was seen in public. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the government had not detained Farooq Abdullah, the National Conference leader said that that the leaders, including him, have been placed in the House Arrest. " I have a problem of blood pressure & I am arrested in the House. Whatever Home Minister has said is baseless. No one is allowed to enter my house.," Abdullah was quoted as saying.

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Putting an end to all wild speculations and online and offline rumours, the Narendra Modi government on August 5 revoked the Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also proposed the bifurcation of the state. The third key takeaway of the big announcement was the scrapping of Article 35A, which empowered Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. The big announcements will have far reaching effects on the ground.

With Article 370 becoming history, Jammu and Kashmir will not have separate state flag. With President Ram Nath Kovind’s nod to scrapping of Article 35A, every Indian will now be able to buy property in Jammu and Kashmir. Instead of the Ranbir Penal Code, the entire region will now fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian Penal Code. With these announcements, the Modi government at the Centre will have right on land and police power in Jammu and Kashmir.

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As against the trifurcation buzz, the Modi government announced the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. Shah also moved a bill proposing bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir division and Ladakh. Shah, who introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill, said the union territory in Ladakh will have no legislature like Chandigarh. The other union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Delhi and Puducherry.