CJI Ranjan Gogoi to head the 5- judge Constitutional bench on abrogation of Article 370
In a major development, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre today, i.e., Wednesday, August 28, 2019, asking it to respond to batch of petitions on scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir as well as the restrictions imposed on the freedom of Press in Jammu & Kashmir.
The Supreme Court has also referred the matter to a 5-jugde Constitutional bench who will hear all the pleas related to abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir from the first week of October 2019.
The bench headed by the Chief Justice of India – Ranjan Gogoi rejected the plea of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Attorney General K.K. Venugopal who argued with the bench against the issuance of notice to the Centre. The bench also comprised of Justices S.A. Bobde and S.A. Nazeer.
The bench observed, “We will refer the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench.” The bench also said, “We know what to do, we have passed the order, we are not going to change.”
The bench also allowed the Head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – Sitaram Yechury to visit the region to meet his colleague, Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, a former lawmaker who is among hundreds of detained political workers in Jammu & Kashmir. Earlier, on August 9, 2019, Yechury was returned from Srinagar Airport when he tried to visit Jammu & Kashmir.
Allowing Yechury to travel to Jammu & Kashmir, Ranjan Gogoi said, “We will permit you to go, you are the general secretary of a party. Don’t go for anything else.”
The bench has also ordered the Centre to submit a response within 7 days, to the plea of Editor of the ‘Daily Kashmir Times’ – Anuradha Bhasin, who has asked for the lifting of ban on telephone and internet services in Jammu & Kashmir.
For the records, there are more than a dozen petitions lying with Supreme Court challenging the revoking of Articles 370 in Jammu & Kashmir. The first petition taken up today was filed by Advocate M.L. Sharma. It challenged the Presidential order of scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir. The petitioner was later joined by another lawyer from Jammu & Kashmir, Shakir Shabir.
Another petition was filed by Mohammad Akbar Lone and Justice (Retd.) Hasnain Masoodi, both Lok Sabha members of the Jammu & Kashmir based political party – National Conference (NC). It contested that the changes brought in the status of the State have taken away the rights of its citizens without their mandate. In the prayer, the petitioner requested to declare the abrogation of the special status as “unconstitutional” and “void”.
Besides, a group of Former Defence Officers and Bureaucrats, have also filed a plea. The petitioners included Professor Radha Kumar – Former Member of the Home Ministry’s Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir (2010-11), Hindal Haidar Tyabji – Former IAS Officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Kapil Kak – Air Vice Marshal (Retd.), Ashok Kumar Mehta – Major General (Retd.), Amitabha Pande – Former Punjab-cadre IAS Officer and Gopal Pillai – Former Kerala-cadre IAS Officer, who retired as the Union Home Secretary in 2011.
A petition has also been filed by Shah Faesal – bureaucrat-turned-politician, along with his party colleague, Shehla Rashid – former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) leader.
