Prerna Gala
Published on: 23 September 2022 at 20:52 IST
The Supreme Court said on Friday that the petitions contesting the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) special status, will be listed following the approaching Dussehra holiday.
The case was raised before Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit.
“Yes, it will be listed after the Dussehra break,” the CJI said.
On October 3, the court will be closed for a week in observance of Dussehra. The reopening date is October 10.
The Supreme Court is now hearing more than 20 petitions that contest the Central Government’s intention to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.
The Center had abolished the State of Jammu & Kashmir’s special status by repealing the Article. The state was thereafter divided into the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.
A 5-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench ruled in March 2020 that the group of petitions challenging Article 370 did not need to be forwarded to a 7-judge Constitution bench.
This decision was made after a few petitioners asked for the case to be referred to a 7-judge panel on the grounds that Prem Nath Kaul v. State of Jammu & Kashmir and Sampat Prakash v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, two Supreme Court decisions, clash with one another. Both of these decisions, which dealt with the interpretation of Article 370, were made by benches of five judges.
However, the five-judge panel that was considering the issue had decided against referring it to a bigger panel because they believed there was no inconsistency between the two verdicts.