Tag: Article 370 petition

Article 370: SC Adjourns Hearing on Centre’s Decision Until November 14

The court gave the Centre and the J&K administration four weeks’ time to file counter-affidavits.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed November 14 to commence hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision to dilute sections of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana allowed the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration four weeks’ time to file counter-affidavits on petitions challenging scrapping of Article 370.

Also read: Article 370 in the Court of Last Appeal

The apex court refused the plea of petitioners that not more than two weeks be given to the Centre and J&K administration for filing counter-affidavits. The court also put an embargo on the filing of any fresh writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of the decision to revoke of Article 370.

The bench said that one week’s time would be for the petitioners to file their replies to the counter-affidavit that would be filed by the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration within four weeks.

“We have to allow the Centre and the J&K administration to file counter-affidavit otherwise we can’t decide the matter,” the bench also comprising Justices S.K. Kaul, R. Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant said.

Retired Bureaucrats, Defence Personnel Challenge Centre’s Decisions on J&K in SC

Saying that the changes strike at the heart of the principles on which the state of J&K was integrated into India, the petition notes that they have no sanction from the people of the state.

New Delhi: A group of retired senior bureaucrats and defence personnel who have served in or been associated with Jammu and Kashmir have filed a joint petition in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the president’s amendments to Article 370 and the J&K Reorganisation Bill.

Saying that the changes strike at the heart of the principles on which the state of J&K was integrated into India, the petition notes that they have no sanction from the people of the state. It also says that affirmation of the people of the state is a constitutional imperative.

According to a report in India Today, the petition states,”Article 370(3) of the Constitution requires the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir to recommend a presidential notification under Article 370(3) declaring that Article 370 shall cease to be operative”. It adds that since the constituent assembly of the state no longer exists, it couldn’t have made such a recommendation.

Also read: ‘Democracy Has Plunged to a New Low’: Gandhi Peace Foundation on Kashmir

The move to abrogate provisions of Article 370 without ascertaining the will of the people “violates the basic principles of democracy, federalism, and fundamental rights,” it further states.

The six petitioners are Radha Kumar, Hindal Haidar Tyabji, Kapil Kak, Ashok Kumar Mehta, Amitabha Pande and Gopal Pillai.

Kak and Mehta are retired defence personnel. While Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit and permanent resident of the state, is a decorated officer who has served as the Air Vice Marshal, Mehta has held postings in Uri Sector, south of the Pir Panjal in Rajouri and has fought in the 1965 as well as 1971 Indo-Pak war. Mehta has also served in the Kargil and Ladakh sectors.

Tyabji, Pande and Pillai are former high-ranking bureaucrats. Kumar is a former member of the Home Ministry’s Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir (2010-11), as well as an academic and policy analyst who has worked on conflicts and peacemaking in South Asia, Europe and Africa for over 20 years

Also read: The ‘Special Status’ of Kashmir’s Internet Must Go

Tyabji is a former chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir and has also acted as advisor to former governor N.N. Vohra.

Pande is a former secretary of the Inter State Council of the Government of India, a constitutional machinery for federal policy coordination, diversity management and consensus building between the Union of India and the states, and among the states.

Pillai is a former Union home secretary who has dealt with the state in both peacetime and turmoil.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had pulled up petitioners including M.L. Sharma and Shabir Shakil for their ‘defective’ pleas on Article 370. Sharma is a lawyer and Shakil is a Kashmiri advocate. Sharma is known for filing PILs in several courts on prominent issues; he made headlines after he defended the accused in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.