New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday said it would consider a plea for an early listing of petitions challenging the Government of India’s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution. The Article had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“We will examine and give a date,” a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha said when intervenor Radha Kumar, an academic and author, sought early listing of the petitions on the issue, PTI reported.
Earlier on April 25 and September 23, a bench headed by the then CJI N V Ramana, since retired, had agreed to list for hearing the pleas challenging the GoI’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370.
The apex court will have to re-constitute a five-judge bench to hear the pleas as ex-CJI Ramana and Justice R Subhash Reddy, who were part of the five-judge bench which had heard the pleas, have retired.
Besides the two former judges, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, B R Gavai and Surya Kant were part of the bench which, on March 2, 2020, had declined to refer to a larger seven-judge bench the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the GoI’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
Pertinently, on August 5, after Kashmir was locked down with virtually no contact with the outside world, the Government of India stripped Kashmir of special status and divided the erstwhile state into two union territories- JK and Ladakh.