Shillong, December 11: The Supreme Court while hearing the petitions against abrogation of Article 370 on Monday said that Article 370 was a temporary provision of the Indian constitution which was brought in during a war condition in Jammu and Kashmir.
Tight security arrangements were made in Kashmir Valley ahead of the verdict on Article 370 which was being waited for anxiously by the political parties in Valley.
The Supreme Court said Jammu and Kashmir does not hold internal sovereignty after it acceded to India. “We hold it does not hold any internal sovereignty after accession to the Union of India,” said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.
CJI Chandrachud is pronouncing the verdict on the batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the 2019 Presidential Order taking away the special status accorded to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories.
On September 5, a Constitution Bench, which included the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, had reserved its verdict after hearing oral arguments from both sides.
Earlier in March 2020, a five-judge Constitution Bench declined to accept the contentions of the petitioners to refer the issue to a larger bench of seven judges.
The 5-judge Constitution Bench, headed by then CJI N.V. Ramana, reasoned that the earlier judgments rendered by the top court in the Prem Nath Kaul case and the Sampat Prakash case, dealing with the interpretation of Article 370, were not in conflict with each other. (with inputs from IANS)