SC Hears Petitions Challenging Centre’s Article 370 Move; Pulls Up Petitioners For Defective And ‘Meaningless’ Pleas
[ By Bobby Anthony ]The Supreme Court heard a plea challenging the Centre’s recent move regarding Article 370, but pulled up petitioner M L Sharma, who happens to be a lawyer, for his “defective pleas” challenging the central government move pertaining to special status for Jammu & Kashmir.The petition was filed by advocate M L Sharma on August 6, challenging the Centre’s move with...
The Supreme Court heard a plea challenging the Centre’s recent move regarding Article 370, but pulled up petitioner M L Sharma, who happens to be a lawyer, for his “defective pleas” challenging the central government move pertaining to special status for Jammu & Kashmir.
The petition was filed by advocate M L Sharma on August 6, challenging the Centre’s move with regard to Article 370, which resulted in the creations of union territories of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh.
The advocate’s petition claimed that the Presidential order on Article 370 is illegal since it was passed without the consent of the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly.
His petition also sought directions to restore all modes of communication, including mobile Internet and landline services, throughout Jammu & Kashmir in order to provide the media to function.
However, the Supreme Court questioned the petitioner and stated that his petition against Centre's move on Article 370 had “no meaning”.
The court stated that the petition deserved to be dismissed and that the court could not make out anything of the petition despite reading it thoroughly for 30 minutes.
The court asked lawyers to cure the defects in their petitions against Article 370 and adjourned the hearing.
The Chief Justice of India also pulled up Kashmiri advocate Shabir Shakil for filing a similar defective application.
The court also heard a plea filed by Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin seeking relaxation of movements by journalists in the Kashmir valley and the communications shutdown.
The court stated that these petitions will be listed later after the order of the Chief Justice on the administrative side.
The court stated that it would like to give little more time to the government to lift restrictions on media in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that there are news reports that landline connections are being restored.
The court stated that it would take up the matter on media restrictions along with other connected matters, but did not fix any particular date.