No proposal to repeal Article 370: New Delhi

The government has no proposal to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
“No” was the reply of Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju to a written question by TMC member Saugata Roy on whether the government has any proposal to repeal Article 370. Immediately after NDA came to power at the Centre, Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh had said the government was open to debate on merits and demerits of Article 370 and would make efforts to “convince” the “unconvinced” by holding contact programs with every section of the society in Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh, who was elected from Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, had said BJP was working “very professionally” on this issue and has been calling meetings in the Kashmir Valley. “We have succeeded in convincing some of them (on the issue of repealing the provision),” he had said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had on July 11 dismissed a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Article 370. A bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman had dismissed the plea by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, who contended that Article 370 was a temporary provision that lapsed with the dissolution of the state’s constituent assembly in 1957.
The petitioner said that a question before the apex court for its consideration was whether the temporary provision lapsed automatically with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir on Jan 26, 1957.
Another query the court was asked to address was whether the state’s constitution, which came into force Nov 17, 1956/Jan 26, 1957 was valid as some of its provisions were inconsistent with the provisions of the Indian Constitution.
Dismissing the plea, the court wondered what made the petitioner raise the issue after Constitution of India came into force in 1950 and Jammu and Kashmir’s Constitution in 1956.