SC to hear petitions questioning abrogation of Art 370

The Supreme Court will take up on Wednesday a batch of petitions questioning the validity of the Union government's decision to remove the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to divide the state into two Union Territories.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer would also consider a habeas corpus petition filed by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury for production of his party MLA in the dissolved Assembly, Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami.

The top court has listed as many as 15 petitions filed by different persons including two National Conference MPs Mohd Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi for declaring the August 5 Presidential Order— which took away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution— as unconstitutional and inoperative.

A petition filed by advocate M L Sharma, who was the first to approach the court, has also shown as listed in the causelist.

The MPs have also challenged the validity of the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act of 2019, which divided the state into the two Union Territories, and sought a direction to declare it “unconstitutional, void, and inoperative” for being “contrary to the constitutional scheme”.

Besides, a separate petition filed by Shah Faesal, former IAS topper and president of J&K People's Movement, and Radha Kumar; former J&K interlocutor and Congress sympathiser Tehseen Poonawalla would also come up for hearing.

A petition filed by Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin for removal of restrictions on the internet would also be taken up by the bench.