“8th August, 2019: Constitutional Law Society NLUO Inaugural STUDENT DISCUSSION ON Article 370 and Kashmir: A Necessity or a Democratic Failure?”

The Constitutional Law Society, NLUO under the guidance of its Faculty Advisor, Mr. Ashit Kumar Srivastava, Assistant Professor of Law, organized its first ever student discussion on the topic ‘Article 370 and Kashmir: A Necessity or a Democratic Failure?’on 8^th August 2019. The purpose of this discussion was to encourage student dialogue and to provide an accessible forum for intellectual discourse and shape the discussion of the most important and relevant issues pertaining to Constitution. This initiative was undertaken to have a structured and moderated dialogue so that the diverging views on this exciting Constitutional Law issue could be put forth.

The students were first addressed by the CLS members on the history of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, Jammu and Kashmir’s status before independence and the Instrument of Accession. Moreover, a detailed analysis of procedures followed in the recent days was briefed to the students so that no doubt is left in any participant’s mind about the key events which have occurred.

Four issues were then put forward to the students which were to be discussed and deliberated upon by the students:

1.      Instrument of Accession: A democratic guarantee. Does India necessarily have to respect this document?

2.      Abrogation and Constitutionality – Can a State do indirectly what it cannot do directly?

3.      Would there have been a better way of doing this?

4.      Does the impending necessity of this Act overpower the possible human rights violation?

There were interesting and logical contentions made by the students regarding these issues, some which have been heavily critiqued such as the provision being a part of Part XXI of the Constitution, the affirmation of territorial sovereignty on the land of Jammu and Kashmir when we talked about the Instrument of Accession and the obligations which are to be observed by International Law precedents. On the issue of the Constitutionality of the Presidential Orders and the Reorganisation Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha, the procedures were meticulously analysed by the students and it was observed that the crowd was very participative in their expression of opinions.

Overall, the student discussion received an encouraging response and students were very willing to participate, contribute and enhance their own understanding of the situation as well as enlighten the others with their statements.<