The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, said it would consider listing of a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 that had conferred the special status to J&K and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, bifurcating the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
“We will examine and give a date,” said a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha as one of the petitioners sought early listing of the matter which is pending since long.
Earlier on September 23, a then Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit heading a bench had said that all the petitions would be taken up for hearing after the week long Dussehra break of the top court.
Prior to that, on April 28, then chief justice N V Ramana had said that the matter would be listed for hearing in July. Justice Ramana had said this following a mentioning by senior advocates P. Chidambaram and Shekhar Naphade for an early listing.
A number of petitions are pending before the top court challenging the scrapping of Article 370 of the constitution and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories. The petitions challenging the delimitation exercise in pursuance to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 too are pending adjudication.
These petitions have said that sweeping irreversible changes are being brought about by the Centre that impact the rights of a large number of people, despite the fact that petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 conferring special status to J&K and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories are pending before the top court.
Petitions have stated the Centre has constituted a delimitation commission to carve out the constituencies before an assembly election can be held.
On August 5, 2019, the Central government announced the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 and split the region into two Union territories.
A five-judge bench headed by Justice Ramana (later became CJI and since retired) and comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice R. Subhash Reddy (since retired), Justice B.R.Gavai and Justice Surya Kant had on March 2, 2020, declined the plea to refer the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories to a larger 7-judge bench.
A five-judge constitution bench had declined to refer the matter to a larger 7-judge bench noting that there was no conflict in the position taken by earlier two benches of the strength of five-judges each on the interpretation of Article 370 of the constitution – now abrogated.
The top court had then said that the schedule for the hearing of the main matter – challenging the abrogation of Article 370 – would depend on the hearing of the Sabarimala and other matters relating to gender justice and essential religious practices by a 9-judge bench.
Petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, have been filed, amongst others by the National Conference, veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha, NGO People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, private individuals, lawyers, and activists.