Don’t want to be part of plea against Article 370 nullification, Faesal tells SC

Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shah Faesal has moved the Supreme Court saying to he does not wish to be part of a petition challenging the nullification of the Constitution’s Article 370 that stripped Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) of its semi-autonomous status in 2019 as he has quit politics and wishes to pursue public service without the baggage of political activism.

He moved an application in the court in this regard on April 29 coinciding with the Centre’s move to reinstate him into service. In August, he was appointed as a deputy secretary in the Union culture ministry.

Faesal resigned from IAS in 2018 in protest against “unabated” killings in Kashmir and formed J&K People’s Movement. He was among hundreds of people, who were arrested to stem protests against the changes in the J&K’s constitutional status a year later.

The withdrawal of Faesal’s name will not impact the petition as the remaining six petitioners including former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Shehla Rashid will pursue it.

The court is yet to consider Faesal’s application in which he said the deletion of his name from the array of parties in the petition is “without prejudice to the rights of the other petitioners” whose consent was taken before moving the application.

A five-judge Constitution bench in March 2020 rejected the demand of the petitioners to refer a series of pleas against the nullification of Article 370 and J&K’s division into two Union territories to a larger bench of seven judges. The matter has not been taken up for hearing since.