Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Friday said he will take a call on listing the petitions challenging the removal of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, Bar and Bench reported.
The petitions were mentioned before a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud by Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran. “I will take a call on it,” the CJI said, as per Bar and Bench.
The report states that over 20 petitions are pending before the Supreme Court challenging the central government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which resulted in the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. The erstwhile State was subsequently bifurcated into two Union Territories.
In March 2020, a 5-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court decided not to refer the batch of petitions to a 7-judge Constitution bench, despite some petitioners seeking a reference. The petitioners argued that two Supreme Court judgments, Prem Nath Kaul v. State of Jammu & Kashmir and Sampat Prakash v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, which were rendered by 5-judge benches and dealt with the interpretation of Article 370, were in conflict.
However, the 5-judge bench that was hearing the case declined to refer the matter to a larger bench, stating that there was no conflict between the two judgments.