NEW DELHI President Ram Nath Kovind issued an order extending the benefits of reservation to economically backward sections in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday night.
A notification in this regard was issued after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took a decision on Thursday to issue the order, a Home Ministry official said.
With this, the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections has been made applicable in Jammu and Kashmir also.
This would pave the way for reserving state government jobs to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir who are from economically weaker sections belonging to any religion or caste, the official said.
Ten per cent reservation to economically weaker sections was introduced in the rest of the country through the 103rd Constitutional Amendment in January 2019.
The central government’s move came as Jammu and Kashmir is currently under the President’s Rule.
Its monumental fraud: KCSDS
A civil society group on Saturday said Government of India cannot amend 1954 Presidential Order on the recommendation of its own nominee and termed it as monumental fraud the extension of constitution 77th amendment (reservation in promotion for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) and constitution 103rd amendment (reservation for economically-weaker sections of society) to J&K.
The government cannot amend 1954 presidential order on the recommendation of its own nominee. As you are aware that any application of constitutional provision to state of J&K according to 1954 presidential order cannot be applied to the state but only through a presidential order under clause (1) of Article 370 after obtaining due concurrence of the elected State government, though in actual terms it is state constituent Assembly, in whose absence no law could be extended to the state and all such laws extended from time to time are null and void according to legal experts of 370, Noorani, Aman Hingorani etc), Prof Hameedah Nayeem, Chairperson Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCSDS) said while addressing a presser here.
Among others who were present included Advocate Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, Dr. Javid Iqbal, Prof. Sidiq Wahid, Abdul Majid Zargar, Shakeel Qalander, G. M Dug, Faiz Bakshi and Syed Fazal Illahi.
Though the Article 370 has been hollowed downed by easy connivance of the state governments and reduced to a husk over the years , the remnants could not be consumed and consigned to the dustbin of history in this blatantly fraudulent manner throwing all relevant procedures and democratic and ethical norms and above all the political commitment to the state to winds.
The concurrence of the state government after deliberations, discussions and consultations are a must before the president can issue any such order for the state, the KCSDS chairperson said.
The concurrence does not mean ritual stamp of the state government but implicitly contains the power to reject in case it is not found suitable for the common citizenry by the elected government.
As the State government is under Presidents rule at the moment, she said, obviously any application of Indian constitutional provision to state cant be made and any such application has to wait for the due concurrence of the elected government but the president of India in the present instance has committed an act of monumental fraud and deceit by applying the constitutional 77th & 103rd amendment to the state by obtaining consent from his own nominee or representative the Governor of the State.
The malafides behind the Presidents and Governors action can be gauged from the fact that 77th amendment is being applied to State after a period of 24 years after its inception during which period four elected Governments were in place and they never allowed its application to the state. The order has serious ramifications especially because previous governments have never allowed this. This is a single step away from doing away with 35A!
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