On Friday, the Supreme Court stated that it will list the petitions challenging the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 after Dussehra vacations.
The Chief Justice of India UU Lalit stated that, “we will certainly list that”, when the counsel made an urgent mention to list the matters.
The court noted that in 2019 the petitions were reffered to a Constitution Bench comprising of Justice N V Ramana, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice R Subhash Reddy, Justice B R Gavai and the Justice Surya Kant. One of the members of the bench, Justice Subhash Reddy, retired in January this year. However, the CJI was probably referring to this fact while saying that he will have to reconstitute the bench.
In December 2019, the hearings on the Article 370 cases commenced before the 5-judge bench, it is almost 4 months after the notifications issued by the Centre in August 2019. In the case a preliminary issue aroused 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 case of Prem Nath Kaul and the case of Sampath Prakash. The bench by a judgement dated 2ndMarch, 2020, it was held by the Constitution bench that there was no need to refer the matter regarding the challenging to the Presidential Orders issued to a larger Bench under Article 370.
The Court stated that the petitions have not been listed after March 2, 2020.
