SC defers hearing on challenge to Constitution's Article 35A

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday deferred the hearing on challenge to the Constitution's Article 35A granting special rights to natives of Jammu and Kashmir as the Central government told the apex court that it may have implications for the dialogue being held by its interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma to find solution to the state's troubled situation.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud adjourned the matter for eight weeks as Attorney General K.K.Venugopal told the court that the Centre's special representative was holding dialogue with different stakeholders to find some solution and if hearing on the challenge to Article 35A takes place, then it will have some effect.

The government had urged the court to adjourn the hearing by six months, but the court only deferred it by eight weeks.

The top court by its August 25 order had said that it would hear after Diwali holidays the challenge to the Article 35A and the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution's Section 6 granting special rights and privileges to natives of Jammu and Kashmir but denying to a woman who marries a non-Kashmiri and her children.

Charu Wali Khanna has moved the top court challenging the provisions which deal with "permanent residents" of the state and their special rights and privileges.