SRINAGAR: As the Supreme Court commenced the hearing on a series of petitions challenging the scrapping of Article 370, a total of 18 lawyers representing various parties are expected to conclude their oral arguments within a span of 60 hours.
The nodal counsel, Advocate-on-Record Prasanna S, received a synopsis indicating that 18 counsel will be presenting arguments on behalf of the petitioners.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Gopal Subramanium are anticipated to use 10 hours each to conclude their arguments. Kapil Sibal represents NC’s Muhammad Akbar Lone, while Gopal Subramanium will be arguing on behalf of petitioner Muzaffar Iqbal Khan.
Senior Advocates Shekhar Naphade and Zafar Shah are expected to present their arguments for 8 hours each. Shekhar Naphade represents former Kashmir interlocutor Radha Kumar, and Zafar Shah is himself a petitioner in the case.
Senior advocate PC Sen, who will also appear on behalf of Radha Kumar and others, will speak for three hours.
Senior Advocates Dushyant Dave and Chander Uday Singh are expected to present their arguments within four hours each. Dushyant Dave represents Rifat Ara Butt, while CU Singh is appearing on behalf of Inderji Tikoo, Satish Jacob, and MY Tarigami.
Additionally, senior advocates Dinesh Dwivedi (petitioners Manohar Lal Sharma & Prem Shanker Jha) and Gopal Sankaranarayanan (petitioner Soyaib Qureshi) are expected to require approximately three hours each for their respective arguments.
Senior Advocates Rajeev Dhavan, representing Peoples Conference, and Sanjay Parekh will each take about 2 hours for their oral arguments. Sanjay Parekh represents Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
While the expected argument time for these counsel totals approximately 57 hours, the remaining three hours, as per the written submission, have been allocated to intervention applicants. Two of these applicants are represented by Senior Advocates Menaka Guruswamy and Nitya Ramakrishnan, each allotted a time frame of 30 minutes.
Advocate Menaka Guruswamy represents Javid Bhat and Awami National Conference, while Nitya Ramakrishnan is appearing on behalf of Peoples Democratic Party.
Other intervenors and their allotted argument times are senior Advocate PV Surendranath (30 minutes), advocate Manish Tewari (15 minutes), advocate Irfan Hafiz Lone (10 minutes), and advocate Zahoor Ahmad Bhat (10 minutes).
