A FIVE-JUDGE Supreme Court Bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud will take up on July 11 petitions challenging the changes to Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. According to a notification issued by apex court on Monday, the Bench, which also comprises Justices S K Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant, will take up the petitions “for directions”. The pleas also challenge the reconstitution of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Petitions challenging the August 2019 decision of the Union government last came up in the Supreme Court on March 2, 2020, when a five-judge bench presided by Justice N V Ramana rejected the prayer to refer the petitions to a larger Bench. The court, however, made it clear that its order “is confined to the limited preliminary issue of whether the matter should be referred to a larger Bench” and “have not considered any issue on the merits of the dispute”. The other members on the Bench were Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant. Justice Reddy retired in January last year and Justice Ramana retired as Chief Justice of India in August 2022. There are as many as 23 petitions relating to the issue pending before the court. They challenge the Presidential orders of August 5 and 6, 2019 as well as The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
