SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court is set to announce its judgment in the Article 370 abrogation case on Monday, December 11.
The Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant, will deliver its verdict on a group of petitions challenging the Central government’s 2019 decision to revoke Article 370, which granted special status to the former State of Jammu and Kashmir.
After considering the matter for 16 days, the Court reserved its verdict on September 5.
The petitioners, represented by a group of senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subramanium, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave, and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, argued that the Union of India, using its majority in Parliament, employed a series of executive orders through the President to reorganize a full-fledged State into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The petitioners have characterised this move as an assault on federalism and a violation of the Constitution.
The petitioners in the matter challenged the abrogation of 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and also the JK Reorganization Act which bifurcated the State into Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh on the ground that they are unconstitutional.
With Justice SK Kaul retiring from the Supreme Court on December 25, 2023, and December 15, 2023, being the last working day for the Supreme Court before winter vacations, the judgment was anticipated to be delivered early.
The petitioners had argued that the abrogation was an attack on federalism and a fraud played on the Constitution. They also pointed out that the 2019 Act is unconstitutional since Article 3 does not give the Parliament powers to downgrade federal democratic States into a less representative form such as a Union Territory.
