SC to hear a batch of petitions challenging Article 370 after summer vacation

|HT|

The Supreme Court will hear a batch of petitions - challenging the law used to scrap Article 370 - after the summer holidays. Article 370, which gave special powers to Jammu and Kashmir, was scrapped in 2019 by the government as J&K was split into two union territories. In 2019, several petitions challenging the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of the Article and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which splits J-K into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- were referred to a Constitution Bench headed by Justice N V Ramana in 2019 by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.

On Monday, senior advocate Shekhar Naphde appearing for one of the petitioners said to the bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana that the matter needed an urgent hearing "in view of the delimitation exercise being carried out in the state".

To this, the Chief Justice of India responded, “It’s a five-judge bench matter. I will have to ask the other judges as some retirements are also due to take place. We shall see after vacations. On August 5, 2019, the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and the state into two union territories.

Article 370 grants autonomous status to J&K, while Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954, provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state.

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