Article 370 Case : Live Updates From Supreme Court [Day 4]

Subramanium: I'm going to urge that the expression Constituent Assembly and the legislative of a state are both institutions recognised under our Constitution.

Subramanium: My lord, the CJI, yesterday made a very important observation- that in any representative democracy we must look for expression through institutions of the Constitution.

Subramanium: The last is about the expression "people". Here, people have both the sense of being persons but in the constitutional context they have a legal and juridical existence.

Subramanium: The impugned orders - CO 272 and CO 273- in sum and substance do away with the Constitution of J&K. That is impermissible, not authorised.

Subramanium: Here, we have two Constituent Assemblies- one of India and we also have under the Constitution, the Constituent Assembly of J&K.

Subramanium: The second is that Constituent Assembly by its very definition is a primary assembly which is vested with this extraordinary task of framing a constitution. That's why the amending power is always called a derived power.

Subramanium: The Constitution of India and the Constitution of J&K speak to each other. They exist together. Their complimentary existence is the quintessence of the relationship between India and J&K.

Subramanium: One is a historical argument, second is a textual argument, third is a doctrinal argument, and the last is structural argument - these are all methods of constitutional interpretation. In this matter, whichever way you look at it, the result will be the same.

Sr Adv Gopal Subramanium (appearing virtually): In constitutional arguments, there can be multiple approaches.

Counsel: London my lords, London is behind all these problems.

Subramanium: May I correct my friend, I don't live in London. I am only in the suburbs.

The bench has convened for the day. Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanian will commence his arguments today.