Article 370 was a constitutional provision included in Part XXI ("Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions") of the Constitution of India, which granted a special status and a high degree of autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It was added to the Constitution on October 17, 1949, as a temporary measure to govern the relationship between the Union and J&K following the state's accession to India in October 1947. The problem it solved was accommodating the terms of the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh, which limited the Indian Parliament's power to legislate for J&K to only three subjects: defence, foreign affairs, and communications.
The mechanism of Article 370 stipulated that, except for Article 1 (which declared India as a 'Union of States') and Article 370 itself, no part of the Indian Constitution would automatically apply to J&K. Other provisions of the Constitution could be extended to the state only through a Presidential Order, which required the concurrence of the State Government. This provision connected directly to Article 35A, which was introduced via a Presidential Order in 1954 under the powers of Article 370. Article 35A empowered the J&K legislature to define "permanent residents" and grant them special rights and privileges, such as exclusive rights regarding property ownership and government jobs, which were immune from challenge on the grounds of violating fundamental rights.
The provision was rendered inoperative on August 5, 2019, when the Government of India issued a Presidential Order (C.O. 272) superseding the previous orders and making all provisions of the Indian Constitution applicable to J&K. A subsequent order on August 6, 2019, made all clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 inoperative. This change was followed by the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which bifurcated the state into two new Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without a legislature). The Supreme Court of India, in its judgment on December 11, 2023, unanimously upheld the abrogation, ruling that Article 370 was a temporary provision.