SC Sets Up Constitution Bench To Hear Petitions Challenging Central Government’s Reading Down Of Article 370 Clauses
[ By Bobby Anthony ]The Supreme Court has set up a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice N V Ramana to hear a batch of pleas challenging the central government’s reading down provisions of Article 370.The court will begin examining the constitutional validity of reading down the Article 370’s provisions as well as the subsequent presidential orders on it from the first week...
The Supreme Court has set up a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice N V Ramana to hear a batch of pleas challenging the central government’s reading down provisions of Article 370.
The court will begin examining the constitutional validity of reading down the Article 370’s provisions as well as the subsequent presidential orders on it from the first week of October.
It may be recalled that while referring to the batch of petitions to the constitution bench in August, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had stated that a larger bench would hear the issue.
Incidentally, several petitions have been filed challenging the central government decision on Article 370 provisions as well as bifurcating the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two union territories of Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh, which came into being on October 31.
Petitions have also been filed by the National Conference, the Sajjad Lone-led People’s Conference and several other individuals, including the first plea filed by advocate M L Sharma.
On August 17, a group of former defense officers and bureaucrats have moved the Supreme Court challenging the presidential orders and the reading down of Article 370 provisions, which gave a special status to Jammu & Kashmir.
The plea was filed by former member of the Home Ministry's Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir (2010-11) professor Radha Kumar, former IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre Hindal Haidar Tyabji, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak, major general (retd) Ashok Kumar Mehta, former Punjab cadre IAS officer Amitabha Pande and ex-Kerala cadre IAS officer Gopal Pillai, who had retired as Union home secretary in 2011.
They had sought directions from the Supreme Court to declare the presidential orders of August 5 as “unconstitutional, void and inoperative”.
The former defense officers and bureaucrats had also sought declaring the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganization) Act of 2019 as “unconstitutional, void, and inoperative”.
Incidentally, more than half a dozen petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against the reading down of Article 370 provisions and to lift restrictions in Jammu & Kashmir.
Petitions have been filed by advocate M L Sharma, Congress activist Tehseen Poonawalla, advocate Shakir Shabir, National Conference MPs Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi and Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of Kashmir Times, as well as others.