New Delhi : The Supreme Court of India set up a 5-judge constitution Bench, headed by Justice N V Raman, to hear a batch of pleas challenging Centre’s move on removal of special status to Jammu & Kashmir from the beginning of the next month. The Bench will examine the constitutional validity of the scrapping of the Article’s provisions and the subsequent Presidential orders regarding Article 370.

 

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Several petitions have been filed challenging the Centre’s decision abrogating the Article 370 provisions and bifurcating the State into Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh, which will come into being on October 31. Among the petitioners were the National Conference, the Sajjad Lone-led People’s Conference and several other individuals, including advocate M L Sharma.

 

It is worthy of mentioning that in August, a Bench headed by Chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had said the larger Bench will commence hearing on the issue in the first week of October.

 

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Besides the Bench for hearing Article 370 matters, the apex court has also constituted a three-judge Bench for hearing matters on capital punishment and two other benches to hear tax matters comprising two judges each.