The Supreme Court said on Friday that the petitions contesting the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) special status, will be listed following the approaching Dussehra holiday.
Senior Attorney Prashanto Chandra Sen raised the issue before Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit.
The plea mentioned on Saturday was filed by Dr. Radha Kumar, Gopal Krishna Pillai, Hindal Tyabji, Former Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, General Ashok Mehta, and Amitabha Pande.
The Supreme Court will now be hearing more than 20 petitions that contest the Central Government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.
The Centre had abolished the state of Jammu & Kashmir’s special status by repealing the Article 370. The state was thereafter divided into the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.
A 5-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench had ruled in March 2020 that the group of petitions challenging Article 370 did not need to be forwarded to a 7-judge Constitution bench.
This decision was made after a few petitioners asked for the case to be referred to a 7-judge panel on the grounds that Prem Nath Kaul v. State of Jammu & Kashmir and Sampat Prakash v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, two Supreme Court decisions, clash with one another. Both of these decisions, which dealt with the interpretation of Article 370, were made by benches of five judges.
However, the five-judge panel that was considering the issue had decided against referring it to a bigger panel because they believed there was no inconsistency between the two verdicts.
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