A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will hear on July 11 a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s move of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu Kashmir.
The case will be heard by a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The articles 370 and 35 a that gave special status to Jammu Kashmir were abrogated by the BJP Government unilaterally on August 05, 2019. The decision was followed by months long curfew “to prevent any law-and-order situation”.
Hundreds of Kashmiris were detained including three former chief Ministers. A Communication snap down was imposed in the valley for the longest duration.
Though politicians from Jammu Kashmir have been calling for the restoration of the articles that gave special status to Jammu Kashmir, the BJP has been celebrating its unilateral abrogation.
Earlier PDP president Mehbooba Mufti appealed the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud for an early hearing of the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had earlier said that the Government’s argument will not stand the hearings at the court and they will have to restore the Artciles.
“Our petition [before the Supreme Court] makes an incredibly strong case on a simple point: a governor cannot assume the powers of an assembly, and an assembly cannot assume the powers of a constituent assembly. Because if an assembly can assume the power of a constituent assembly, tomorrow what stops a state in the North-east that has a simmering discontent from converting their assembly into a constituent assembly and then saying, ‘I have the constituent assembly’s powers as demonstrated by J&K [Jammu & Kashmir] and therefore I am redrawing our relationship with the rest of India’,” sOmar Abdullah said in an interview to HT.