Will take up pleas challenging Article 370 abrogation after Dussehra break: SC

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 this year, while Justice Ramana retired as Chief Justice of India last month.

Consequently, the bench will now have to be reconstituted. There are as many as 23 petitions 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.