The Chief Minister complimented Mr. Kovind on assuming the office.
This was the first meeting of the Chief Minister with Mr. Kovind after he assumed the office of the President of India.
Meanwhile,Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is all set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the contentious Article 35-A and the cold war between the BJP and its partner has definitely brought the alliance under stress.
The debate surrounding the Constitution’s Article 35A is slowly turning up into a major legal and constitutional row following a petition filed in the Supreme Court that has sought the abrogation of the article.
The said Article pressed into action through a Presidential order gives powers to the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define permanent residents of the state and their privileges. In the process, ‘Indians’ from the rest of the country and even Kashmiri women married outside their caste to an Indian residing in other parts of India cannot purchase land in Jammu and Kashmir.
The petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of Article 35A maintains that the presidential order was not ratified by Parliament and hence it did not have the legitimacy.
“The President of India cannot exercise the powers to amend the Constitution which is the sole prerogative of Parliament,” says the petition.