The Court agreed to re-constitute a five-judge bench to hear pleas after summer vacation.
The Supreme Court Monday agreed to consider listing after summer vacation the pleas challenging the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 which had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for one of the petitioners, that the plea needed urgent hearing in view of the delimitation exercise being carried out in the state.
“This is the Article 370 matter. The delimitation is also going on,” the senior lawyer said.
“Let me see,” the CJI said, adding, “This is a five-judge matter. I will have to reconstitute the bench.”
The Court agreed to re-constitute a five-judge bench to hear pleas after summer vacation.
Several petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which splits J-K into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh — were referred to a Constitution Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana in 2019 by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
The petitions had been briefly heard in 2019, when the court considered whether the cases would need to be heard by a seven-judge bench. On March 2, 2020, the court decided that the Article 370 abrogation issue could be heard by a five-judge bench.
However, with the Covid pandemic and shift to virtual hearing mode, these cases have not been heard so far. The issue was mentioned for urgent hearing in 2021, but the bench could not be constituted as it was considered that it would require a physical hearing due to the large number of petitions and lawyers involved.
Following the abrogation, the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act of 2019 came into force and bifurcated the State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. In a day, Jammu and Kashmir had lost its full Statehood and became a Union Territory of the Central government. The move had been preceded by a state of lockdown in the Valley.
