A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will begin hearing today the batch of petitions challenging the dilution of Article370 of the Constitution which stripped the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status. The Constitution Bench comprises CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant.Stay on this page...
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will begin hearing today the batch of petitions challenging the dilution of Article370 of the Constitution which stripped the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
The Constitution Bench comprises CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant.
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CJI DY Chandrachud: We can conclude this tomorrow.
Sibal: Deeply obliged.
The bench rises for the day.
Sibal: That's a political decision. You want to abrogate 370, abrogate it. You want to integrate in India completely, say it. But that's a political act. That political act cannot be exercised by parliament, a legislative body.
Sibal: Because that legislative body is controlled by the Constitution. It can't go beyond that.
Sibal: The concept of a constituent assembly is a political exercise. That political authority, that political body can decide on the future of the state.
Sibal: So you can hold parliamentary elections but you will not hold state elections?
Sibal: Kindly note one thing- in May 2019, there were parliamentary elections in the State of J&K. Three months after this! This happened in 6th August and in May - parliamentary elections.
Sibal: So you move away from representative democracy, convert it into a Union Territory under your direct rule, and 5 years have passed! Everyday we hear there will soon be elections. There has to be a constitutional basis for doing this.
Justice Kant: You can carve out a Union Territory out of a state.
Sibal: You can carve out but you can't have all of Madhya Pradesh become a Union Territory one fine day. That is unthinkable! Under J&K there was a special provision for this.
Sibal: You can change the boundary of a state, you can bifurcate boundaries of a large state to make smaller states. But never in the history of this country has a state been converted into a Union Territory.
Senior Advocate Sibal: Article 3 says they can change the boundaries- they didn't change boundaries in this case but they changed it to Union Territory.
Senior Advocate Sibal continues reading from the list of dates.