What is Article 35A? Here's all you need to know

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday announced that Article 35A will be scrapped. 

Here is all you need to know about Article 35A:

Article 35A is based on the terms negotiated between Jammu and Kashmir's Sheikh Abdullah and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1949.

The article was inserted into the constitution through a Presidential order in 1954, instead of a parliamentary amendment under article 368.

Article 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir government to define the state's permanent residents and to grant them privileges and special rights. Only permanent residents can purchase land and property, settle permanently in the region, and get government jobs, scholarships in the state.

It excludes outsiders from acquiring property and getting benefits including government jobs and scholarships in the state-run educational institutions. 

According to Article 35A, women who marry a non-permanent resident lose their "state subject" status. However, in 2002, the Jammu and Kashmir high court held that a woman marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose her rights -- but children born to such a woman will not have succession rights.