SC agrees to hear pleas challenging abrogation of Article 370 after summer vacation

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, representing one of the petitioners in the matter, submitted before a bench. headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justice Hima Kohli. that matter needs urgent hearing against the backdrop of delimitation exercise being carried out in the Union Territory.He said: “This is the Article 370 matter. The delimitation is also going on.”

The Chief Justice remarked that he will try to list the case, but pointed out that there are some issues with bench composition. “This is before a 5-judge bench. I will have to reconstitute the bencha. Give details, we will list it,” he told Naphade.

The Centre, by abrogating the provisions of Article 370, had revoked the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and subsequently, the state was downgraded and bifurcated into two Union Territories — of Ladakh and of Jammu and Kashmir.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, in March 2020, held that there was no need to refer the batch of petitions challenging Article’s 370 abrogation to a seven-judge constitution bench.