Supreme Court says it will consider listing pleas challenging Article 370

"We will examine and give a date," said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha as one of the petitioners in the case sought early listing of the matter.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would consider listing for hearing a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.

“We will examine and give a date,” said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha as one of the petitioners in the case sought early listing of the matter.

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Various petitions are pending before the top court challenging the validity of the law scrapping Article 370 of the constitution and special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

Later, some petitions were filed against the government’s action for delimitation in accordance with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.

These petitions said sweeping changes are being brought about by the Centre that impact the rights of a large number of people. Despite the fact that the petition has been pending before the Supreme Court since 2019, the central government has taken some irreversible actions.

Petitions have stated the Centre has constituted a delimitation commission to mark boundaries in the territory for all the constituencies before an assembly election can be held.

On August 5, 2019, the Central government announced its decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 and split the region into two Union territories.

A five-judge Bench in March 2020 had declined to refer to a larger 7-judge bench a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 on August 5, saying there were no reasons to refer the matter to a larger bench.

A number of petitions have been filed in the top court including those by private individuals, lawyers, activists and politicians and political parties challenging the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which splits Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.