NEW DELHI: A review petition has been filed by a researcher and an IT professional before the Supreme Court on Monday challenging its recent judgement on December 11, upholding the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision to scrap special status under Article 370 to J&K and bifurcating the state into two UTs: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.The review petition was filed by the I-T professional, Pankaj Kumudchandra Phadnis, also the president of the Abhinav Bharat Congress, a public policy think tank, before the apex court. “I have filed the review petition before the top court. I seek certain modifications,” Phadnis told TNIE.”In my opinion, the matter would likely to come up for hearing before the Apex Court very soon, may be in 15 or 20 days. The matter is an important one,” he added.The petitioner also sought a modification of the Apex Court order that Article 370 may be kept in abeyance until such time as the Parliament may be able to ascertain the views of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on the extent of constitutional autonomy they need and deserve and the decision of the People of the Republic of India.”The people of Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to the same rights and benefits as any other citizen of this nation, including the right to have a state represent their interests in the Union. This was missing in the SC verdict. Such constitutional autonomy that the sovereign of the Republic of India, that is, Bharat, i.e., the people, may agree to is self-evident. Therefore, the apex court may be pleased to grant interim relief.” he said.Article 370, which springs from the Instrument of Accession signed by the Dominion of India, which the Republic of India, that is, Bharat, does not recognise, is nonexistent for the Republic of India, which is Bharat, Phadnis said in his review plea filed before the SC.His plea said that the national sovereign of India, that is, Bharat, in 1857, was the secular Bharatiya (not Moghul) Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, and therefore the secular Republic of India, that is, Bharat, is the natural heir to his sovereignty. “Consequently, none of the Indian Princely States—more particularly the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Junagarh, and Hyderabad—were ever sovereign and independent nations, so far as the Republic of India, that is, Bharat, is concerned,” the review plea of Phadnis said.”There is no question that there was any annexation of either Junagarh or Hyderabad. These provinces attempted to secede, taking advantage of problems faced by the Dominion of India in 1947. That attempt was put down firmly by the Dominion of India. This act of the Dominion of India is explicitly recognised by the Republic of India, that is Bharat,” he said.
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