5-judge SC bench to hear 370 pleas
New Delhi: A five-judge Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana is learnt to have been formed to start hearing from October 1 petitions challenging the Centre's move render Article 370 inoperative that stripped Jammu and Kashmir state of its special sttus.
A 5-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana, the third senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, will start hearing a batch from October 1 of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A to remove the special status granted to Jammu & Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories.
Article 370 and 35A were removed from the Constitution through a Presidential order on August 4 and a Bill was passed by Parliament subsequently as a follow-up to create separate Union Territories of J&K, and Ladakh.
Since Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Judge Sharad Arvind Bobde are tied up with the daily hearing of the Ayodhya dispute, CJI Gogoi constituted a separate Bench on Article 370 having four other judges as its members. They are Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R. Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant.
The CJI reportedly cleared the formation of the 5-judge Bench to hear Article 370 matters on Friday afternoon, but the constitution of this Bench is still not notified on the Supreme Court website. Its formation, however, became clear from a notice on the cause list for October 1 regarding a 3judge Bench of Justices Ramana, R Subhash
Article 370 and 35A were removed from Constitution on August 4 and a Bill was passed by Parliament as a follow-up to create separate Union Territories
Reddy and Gavai, which will sit in Court No 3 on October 1. The notice reads: “If the Constitution Bench does not sit for any reason or hearing in the matter listed before the Constitution Bench is over, the following matters will be taken up for hearing by this Bench.”
On August 28, the CJI had referred the petitions to the Constitution Bench, declaring that it will begin hearing the matter from the first week of October. In all ten petitions that been filed on Article 370, including six challenging the constitutionality of the Centre’s actions. Also clubbed with them will be half a dozen other petitions filed later challenging the withdrawal of the special status granted to the J&K.
A special Bench of the CJI and Justices S.A. Bobde and Abdul Nazeer had earlier issued a notice to the Centre on the petitions, brushing aside objections of attorney general K.K. Venugopal and solicitor general Tushar Mehta that such a notice would internationalise the issue and maybe interpret differently by other countries.