In another petition against the Article 35A of the Indian Constitution that protects special rights and privileges provided to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, a group of people belonging to Jammu’s Valmiki community has moved the Supreme Court to get it declared ultra vires.
Seven Valmiki community members, residents of Valmiki colonyin Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar area — Ajit Kumar, Raju, Kaushalya, Neelam, InderjeetSingh, Kulwinder and Suraj — filed the petition last month, but it has not beenlisted for hearing as yet. However, the Supreme Court is already hearing anumber of pleas challenging the validity of the Articles 35A and 370.
The petition urges the Supreme Court to declare theConstitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order, 1954, that addedArticle 35A to the Constitution, as ultra vires.
The petitioners have also asked to be allowed to vote in theassembly elections of Jammu and Kashmir and that they may be issued voter cardsto vote in the assembly elections.
However, because of the provisions of the Article 35A, theseValmikis from Punjab are not officially recognized as state subjects inJ&K. Thus, they were deprived of all rights available to the peoplerecognized as “citizens” of the state.
Without the state subject, the Valmiki community also doesnot have right to vote in any local elections of Jammu and Kashmir, includingassembly. However, they have voter ID cards and are eligible to vote in the LokSabha elections.
The petitioners belong to families, originally fromGurdaspur and Amritsar, who moved to Jammu in 1957 to fill posts of strikingsweepers (safai karamcharis) on the J&K government’s invitation during thetenure of chief minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad.
Members of these 70-odd families were given land in Jammu’sGandhi Nagar to settle down and provided jobs in the government as sweepers.The Valmiki community has now increased to 450-500 families in the last 60-oddyears in Jammu.
Courtesy: ToI