Previous Jammu and Kashmir giving special status to the state Article 370 Nearly four years after repealing the Act, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Justice DY Chandrachud will hear on July 11 the petitions challenging the decision of the central government. According to a notice released on the apex court website on Monday, a five-judge bench will hear on July 11 the petitions, including the one filed by IAS officer Shah Faesal, for passing the guidelines.
The bench also includes Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant. Faesal, a 2010 batch IAS officer, is the first Kashmiri to have topped the All India Civil Services Examination. He was kept in custody for more than a year after Article 370 of the Constitution was removed. He resigned from the service and launched a political party ‘Jammu Kashmir People’s Movement’ in January 2019. The government did not accept his resignation and Faisal, a doctor by profession, was later posted in the Union Ministry of Culture.
Challenge to the removal of Article 370
Faesal had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the government’s decision on Article 370. On August 5, 2019, the Center scrapped the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories. Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370. Faesal had filed an application in April last year seeking his name to be removed from the list of seven petitioners who have challenged the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
political reaction
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said he was looking forward to hearing the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 in the apex court. Abdullah said in a tweet that finally the bench has been constituted. I am now hopeful that the trial will start properly. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday welcomed the apex court’s decision to list for hearing the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370. He said that the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to finally hear the petitions pending since 2019 challenging the illegal abrogation of Article 370 is welcome.