An advocate approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the government move to revoke the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under the Constitution. The petition by Manohar Lal Sharma has sought the quashing of the notification amending Article 367 of Constitution by way of which a new proviso was added to the Article to state that the expression “Constituent Assembly” in Article 370 (3) would now mean “Legislative Assembly”. Read | Jammu and Kashmir loses special status, to become a Union Territory: A timeline Clause (3) gives the President power to modify the special rights granted under Article 370 — under which special status was conferred to the state — subject to the condition that it has the consent of the Constituent Assembly of J&K. However, with the state’s Constituent Assembly dissolved in January 1957, the Centre brought in an amendment on Monday to replace “Constituent Assembly” with “Legislative Assembly”. Since the state Assembly has been suspended, the concurrence of the Governor is deemed to be the concurrence of the Legislative Assembly. The petition argues that Article 370 could not have been modified without the consent of the Constituent Assembly. It urges the court to quash the notification, saying it was “illegal, unconstitutional, void ab-initio and ultra-vires the Constitution”. The petition is likely to be mentioned before the court on Wednesday for urgent hearing.
