SC to hear pleas challenging abrogation of Article 370 from today

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear from today a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud will conduct day-to-day hearings from Wednesday.

The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant, had on July 11 fixed July 27 as the deadline for filing written submissions and convenience compilations by different parties.

The five-judge bench had said the hearing will be held on a day-to-day basis except on Mondays and Fridays, which are days for hearing miscellaneous matters in the apex court. Only fresh petitions are taken up on these days for admission hearings and regular matters are not heard.

It had appointed two lawyers -- one each from the petitioners' and the government's side -- to prepare convenience compilation and file it before July 27, and made it clear that after the said date no documents will be accepted. A convenience note gives the court a snapshot of the entire case to assist it in quickly appreciating the facts.

It had said the Centre's affidavit with regard to the conditions prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir after the August 5, 2019 notification repealing Article 370 will have no bearing on the constitutional issue to be adjudicated by the five-judge bench.

On that day the Centre had stripped the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and bifurcated it into two union territories.

Several petitions challenging abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which split the erstwhile state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh- were referred to a Constitution bench in 2019.