BREAKING| "Let Me See" : CJI On Plea To Urgently List Pleas Challenging Abolition Of J&K's Special Status Under Article 370

Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade on Monday mentioned before the Chief Justice of India the petitions challenging the 2019 notifications of the President which scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution.

"This is the Article 370 matter.. the delimitation is also going on", Naphade submitted requesting for a posting next week.

"Let me see", CJI Ramana said.

Naphade requested that the petitions be listed at least after the summer vacations(the Court will reopen after summer vacations in July). 

"Let me see... after vacation. This is a 5-judge matter. I will have to reconstitute bench etc..", CJI said.

It may be noted that in 2019 the petitions were referred to a Constitution Bench comprising Justices N V Ramana, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant. Justice Subhash Reddy, one of the members of the bench, retired in January this year. The CJI was probably referring to this fact while saying that he will have to reconstitute the bench.

The hearings on the Article 370 cases commenced before the 5-judge bench in December 2019, almost 4 months after the notifications issued by the Centre in August 2019. A preliminary issue arose in the case as to whether a reference to 7-judge bench was necessary in light of alleged diveregence in the opinions expressed by two coordinate benches of the Supreme Court in the cases of Prem Nath Kaul and Sampath Prakash. By a judgment dated 2^ndMarch, 2020, the Constitution Bench held that there was no need to refer the matter regarding the challenging to the Presidential Orders issued under Article 370 to a larger Bench.

The petitions have not been listed after March 2, 2020.