Country’s apex court while hearing the case of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, deferred the further hearing of matter to November 14.
The case challenging the repeal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir is being heard by a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice N V Ramana. The bench also has Justice SK Kaul, Justice R Subhash Reddy, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant.
Centre files counter affidavit in the petition of Kashmir Times Editor, Anuradha Bhasin who has challenged the restriction on working journalists in the Kashmir valley in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370. pic.twitter.com/EJY0NXz4gK
— ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2019
Supreme Court further stooped the filing of fresh petitions challenging the constitutionality of Article 370 repeal. The Bench said, “We have to allow the Centre and the J&K administration to file counter-affidavit otherwise we can’t decide the matter.”
The constitutional bench also said that the petitioners would be getting one week to file their replies to the counter-affidavit. While the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration will be given four weeks to file their replies.
On Sunday, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had set up a larger constitution bench to hear the matter. Numerous petitioners have filed their petitions in the court challenging the Centre’s August 5 decision repealing the provisions of Article 370. Centre had also bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir region into 2 Union Territories. The UTs- Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir will come into existence on October 31.
Prominent petitioners include the name of ML Sharma, CPI leader Mohd. Yousuf Tarigami and Mohammad Akbar Lone. IAS turned politician Shah Faesal also filed a petition on a similar matter with her colleague Shehla Rashid.