After the abrogation of the Article 370 on 5 August and enforcing the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the Centre has scrapped a 37-year-old law that allowed the return of Jammu and Kashmir residents who had migrated to Pakistan from 1947 to 1954, reports The Wire.

This is one of the 153 state laws and Governors’ Acts abolished under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act.

Abdur Rahim Rather, senior National Conference (NC) leader said, “Since the Resettlement Act has been abolished, the doors have been shut for the return of these J&K residents from Pakistan and it is a closed chapter now.”

In 1980 this bill was introduced by Rather as a private member Bill in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly which was opposed by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress, the J&K National Panthers Party (J&KNPP), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

However the NC had defended this bill by claiming that section 6 of the J&K Constitution and the second proviso to Article 7 of the Indian Constitution and the Delhi Agreement of 1948 should allow the return of migrants.

For the centre, the bill was “fraught with serious security implications and would go against the Citizenship Act.”