SC to take up petitions against Article 370 abrogation: Details here

Over the weekend, the Supreme Court finally set up the five-judge Constitution Bench that will conduct the “highly-awaited” hearing in the batch of petitions challenging the presidential order on Article 370. A bench headed by Justice NV Ramana and comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Justice Surya Kant will kick off the hearings in the ten petitions that have challenged the presidential order. The hearings will start at around 11:00 am tomorrow in the top court. The first petition to be filed was by PIL enthusiast and Advocate ML Sharma who is expected to appear as a Petitioner-in-Person tomorrow.

The list of petitioners

Other petitioners include Shah Faesal and Shehla Rashid, leaders of Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement, Farooq Ahmed Dar, a Kashmiri businessman, National Conference Leader Mohammed Akbar Lone, a Delhi-based artist Inder Ji Tickoo, former MHA appointed locutor Radha Kumar, retired District judge Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, representatives of Jammu & Kashmir People’s Conference and advocates Shakir Shabir and Soayib Qureshi. The hearing comes amidst heavy anticipation as these five judges now have the power to overturn one of the most crucial decisions taken by the Narendra Modi government after being voted into power for a second run. The government has maintained a stable stand on the issue during the course of four short hearings that have taken place in the top court so far. Through the Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, the government has told the Supreme Court that all attempts are being made to restore normalcy in the region with regular monitoring of the situation that continues to remain 'sensitive' even after almost two months of the lockdown being ordered.

Read: Amit Shah: Removal of Article 370 biggest diplomatic win for PM Modi

Srinagar's Justice on the Bench

With the first Constitution Bench hearing scheduled tomorrow, all eyes are on Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. Justice Kaul, who is one of the five judges hearing the case, hails from the family of the Dattatreya Kauls of Srinagar. His inclusion as part of the bench has left many in the fraternity wondering if Day One of the hearing would be cut short due to recusal from the bench. If so, the Supreme Court would then have to set up a new bench once again for the matter to be heard. Recusal, although, is the prerogative of the judge and so there is an equally good chance that Justice Kaul might agree to consider the issue, after all.

Read: Article 370: SC to hear pleas challenging abrogation from October 1

Ayodhya Case's daily hearings

Another interesting aspect to watch out for is if the Constitution Bench holds daily hearings in the case to be able to decide the issue at the earliest. A separate five-judge bench of the Supreme Court recently deviated from the usual norm of “three hearings a week” to daily hearings in the long-standing Ayodhya dispute. None other than the Chief Justice himself said that the Ayodhya bench would assemble daily to hear the issue, on some days well past court hours. Although it is rare for the Supreme Court to do this, it remains to be seen whether the same urgency will be accorded to Article 370 petitions. What cannot be denied is that Article 370 is one of the most important Constitutional issues that the Supreme Court will consider in recent times and with minimum interference of the Supreme Court so far, the first Constitution Bench hearing becomes even more significant to watch out for.

Read: Jaishankar: Kashmir was in mess before abrogation of Article 370

Read: Yogi Adityanath meets Kashmiri students, talks of dialogue & democracy