The Supreme Court of India began hearing from August 2 the constitutional challenge to the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y Chandrachud and also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant has been conducting consecutive hearings in this matter. The five judges are the seniormost in the Court and members of the Supreme Court Collegium.
Several petitions have been filed challenging the Presidential Orders of August 5 and 6, 2019 as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (2019 Act) on the ground that they are unconstitutional. The key questions of law so far raised in the proceedings by the petitioners are — whether the status of J&K had not become permanent after the Constituent Assembly refrained from taking any decision on Article 370 before its dissolution in 1957; whether the latter effectively prevents the Union government from unilaterally altering the State’s relationship with India, and whether the initially ‘temporary’ provision has now attained a permanent character.
The petitioners have also argued that the 2019 Act is unconstitutional since Article 3 does not give the Parliament powers to downgrade federal democratic States into a less representative form such as a Union Territory. The delimitation exercise has also been challenged on the ground that it violates the right to equality.
The Bench has also raised several pertinent questions during the proceedings — whether the dissolution of the State Constituent Assembly could render Article 370 beyond abrogation, whether the provision forms a part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution, and whether the ambit of judicial review prevents the court from assessing the ‘wisdom’ behind the Union government’s decision to abrogate Article 370.
The apex court has taken up this case for hearing after a delay of almost four years. In March 2020, when the Court last heard the matter, the question was about referring the case to a larger bench, which a five-judge bench presided by Justice N.V. Ramana refused. The case was referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench in 2019 by a three-judge bench led by former CJI Rajan Gogoi.
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Here is comprehensive coverage of the historic constitutional case, day-to-day live updates from the court proceedings and in-depth analyses of the issues involved.
