Art 370 abrogation: SC refers petitions to constitution bench; pleas to be heard from October 1

The Supreme Court on Monday referred a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir to its Constitution bench which would hear the matters from Tuesday.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi referred the pleas, which also raised issues of alleged restrictions imposed on movement of journalists in Kashmir as well as petitions claiming illegal detention of minors in the Valley, to its five-judge bench.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by justice N V Ramana will hear the matters related to the Kashmir issue from Tuesday.

Several petitions have been filed challenging the Centre’s decision abrogating the Article 370 provisions and bifurcating the state into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The UTs will come into being on October 31.

Petitions have also been filed by the National Conference, the Sajjad Lone-led Peoples Conference and several other individuals, including the first plea filed by advocate ML Sharma.

Besides the bench for hearing Article 370 matters, the apex court has also constituted a three-judge bench for hearing matters on capital punishment and two other benches, comprising two judges each, to hear tax matters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)