The Supreme Court today ruled that there is no need to constitute a seven judge bench to review the government decision to abrogate Article 370 in Kashmir which granted the state special rights. A five-judge Constitution bench ruled this in response to petitions challenging the constitutional validity of revoking Article 370 last year by the union government.
The Constitution bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R. Subhash Reddy, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant decided against referring the matter to a larger bench.
People’s Union of Civil Liberties, Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, and renowned journalist Prem Shankar Jha, were among those who petitioned in the Supreme Court. The petitioners had citied two earlier judgments of the apex court Prem Nath Kaul vs. Jammu and Kashmir in 1959 and Sampat Prakash vs. Jammu and Kashmir in 1970, which dealt with Article 370, was in conflict. They contended that as a result a five-judge bench could not conduct hearing on the matter.
Disagreeing with the observation, the court ruled that there was no conflict between the judgments. The court ruled, “The plea of the counsel (the petitioners) to refer the present matter to a larger bench on this ground is, therefore, rejected.”
Government of India had under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
