KASHMIR HEARING FROM TODAY

The second 5-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana will start hearing from Tuesday challenge to abrogation of Article 370 and all other matters relating to the subsequent developments thereafter in Jammu and Kashmir.

Other judges on the Bench are Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai and Surya Kant.

The hearing is listed in the name Delhi lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma as he was the first to move his PIL (public interest litigation) as a writ petition to argue the case as petitioner-in-person.

Others whose petitions are attached are J&K Liberation Front chairman Farooq Ahmad Dar Kashmiri lawyer Shakir Shabir, cricket Soayib Qureshi, National Conference leader Mohd Akbar Lone, Inder Salim alias Inder ji Tickoo, Radha Kumar, exIAS officer Shah Faesal, exjudge Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, and J&K Peoples Conference.

Also listed before the Bench will be all Kashmir-related cases that were so far heard by a 3-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi who transferred them on Monday to this Bench since they are connected with developments since after removal of Article 370 from the Constitution through a Presidential order.

This is for the first time that two Constitution Benches of five judges each will be sitting simultaneously, the first being one headed by the CJI hearing the Ayodhya dispute and the second headed by Justice Ramana to hear the Kashmir cases.