<p class="title">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A petition filed by advocate M L Sharma, who was the first to approach the court, has also shown as listed in the causelist.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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”.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A petition filed by <em>Kashmir Times</em> executive editor Anuradha Bhasin for removal of restrictions on the internet would also be taken up by the bench.</p>
<p class="title">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A petition filed by advocate M L Sharma, who was the first to approach the court, has also shown as listed in the causelist.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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”.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A petition filed by <em>Kashmir Times</em> executive editor Anuradha Bhasin for removal of restrictions on the internet would also be taken up by the bench.</p>
