SC to deliver verdict on pleas against abrogation of Article 370 on Dec 11

The Supreme Court will deliver on December 11 its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.

A Constitution Bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, and Surya Kant will decide 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 5 September, the 5-judge bench, which included the five senior most judges of the Supreme Court, had reserved its verdict after hearing oral arguments from both sides.

During the course of the hearing, the top court had heard Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior advocates Harish Salve, Rakesh Dwivedi, V Giri and others on behalf of the Centre and the intervenors defending the abrogation of Article 370. Senior advocates including Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subramanium, Rajeev Dhavan, Zaffar Shah, Dushyant Dave and others had argued on behalf of the petitioners.

The lawyers had dwelt on various issues including the constitutional validity of the Centre's August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate the provision, the validity of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which split the erstwhile state into two Union Territories, challenges to imposition of Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir on June 20, 2018 and imposition of President's rule in the erstwhile state on December 19, 2018 and its extension on July 3, 2019. Several petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 that divided the erstwhile state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh - were referred to a Constitution bench in 2019.

The arguments in the matter had commenced on August 2.

During the hearing, the Central government had told the Supreme Court that it cannot give any exact timeframe and it would take “some time” for restoration of statehood in Jammu and Kashmir while reiterating that its Union Territory status is "temporary".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that the judgment of the Constitution Bench, going either way, will be "historic" and would end the "psychological duality" which existed in the minds of the residents of the Kashmir Valley.

He had said that this "psychological duality" resulted because of confusion arising out of the nature of Article 370 as to whether the special provision was temporary or permanent.

The petitioners had contended that Article 370 of the Constitution has assumed a permanent nature after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of J&K.

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 five-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.