New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would consider a plea for an early listing of submissions challenging the Centre's decision in August 2019 to abrogate Article 370 revoking the special status enjoyed by 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 academic and author Radha Kumar sought an early listing sought early listing of the petitions on the issue.
Earlier on April 25 and September 23 of this year, a Bench headed by then CJI N V Ramana had agreed to list the case.
The top court will have to re-constitute a 5-judge Bench since former CJI Ramana and Justice R Subhash Reddy have since retired. Besides them, the Bench also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, B R Gavai and Surya Kant had on March 2, 2020 declined to refer the matter to a larger 7-judge Bench to consider the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the abrogation of Article 370.
Several petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the J&K Reorganisation Act of 2019, splitting the state into three union territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladak was referred to a Constitution Bench headed by Justice Ramana in 2019 by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
In 2020, the Constitution Bench refused to set up a larger bench, taking a stand that there was no conflict between the two judgments in 1959 and 1970 as pleaded by People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) J&K High Court Bar Association and an intervenor. They had claimed a conflict in the two judgments, one by Prem Nath Kaul vs J&K in 1959 and another by Sampat Prakash vs J&K in 1970.
