News Delhi, Sept 23: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will list the petitions challenging the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 after Dussehra vacations.
“We will certainly list that”, Chief Justice of India UU Lalit said, when an urgent mention was made by Senior Advocate Prashantho Sen for listing of the cases.
It may be noted that in 2019 the petitions were referred to a Constitution Bench comprising Justices N V Ramana, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant. Justice Subhash Reddy, one of the members of the bench, retired in January this year. The CJI was probably referring to this fact while saying that he will have to reconstitute the bench.
According to news agency Kashmir Dot Com the hearings on the Article 370 cases commenced before the 5-judge bench in December 2019, almost 4 months after the notifications issued by the Centre in August 2019. A preliminary issue arose in the case as to whether a reference to 7-judge bench was necessary in light of alleged diveregence in the opinions expressed by two coordinate benches of the Supreme Court in the cases of Prem Nath Kaul and Sampath Prakash. By a judgment dated 2ndMarch, 2020, the Constitution Bench held that there was no need to refer the matter regarding the challenging to the Presidential Orders issued under Article 370 to a larger Bench. The petitions have not been listed after March 2, 2020.
