SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution bench Tuesday said that the hearing date for a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to dissolve Article 370 – a provision in the Indian Constitution that gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir will start from August 2. The hearing of pleas will be on a day-to-day basis except Monday and Friday.
As per media reports, the apex Court appointed two advocates as nodal counsels for the preparation of common convenience compilations of documents. It said written submissions shall also be filed on or before July 27 and no further additions to the convenience compilation shall be permissible.
A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud would preside over the hearings. Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant join Chief Justice Chandrachud on the bench. These petitions question the constitutionality of the Central Government’s decision to repeal Article 370, which resulted in the elimination of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
This action comes nearly four years after the former state of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was abolished.
Earlier, the Central government on Monday defended its decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir saying post the changes, street violence, which was engineered and orchestrated by terrorists and secessionist networks has now become a thing of the past.
