CJI NV Ramana Agrees to List J&K Article 370 Abrogation Case

Recently, Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade mentioned the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that conferred special status on Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) before Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana.

The Senior Advocate also sought a listing of the case citing the delimitation exercise which is going on in J&K.

The CJI said that "This is before 5 judge bench. Give details we will list it. There are some issues with judges and bench composition".

Senior Advocate Naphade appeared for interlocutors, Radha Kumar, Kapil Kak, and others. More than twenty such petitions are pending before the apex court challenging the Central government's decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution. The State was further bifurcated into two Union Territories - Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir.

In March 2020, a 5-judge bench of the top court held that there was no requirement to refer the batch of petitions challenging Article 370 to a 7-judge constitution bench. The bench made this statements after a few petitioners sought reference of the case to a 7-judge bench contending that there is a conflict between two decisions of the SC:

1. Prem Nath Kaul v. State of Jammu & Kashmir; and 
2. Sampat Prakash v. State of Jammu & Kashmir. 

Both the cases dealt with the interpretation of Article 370, the judgments were passed by 5-judge benches. However, the 2020 5-judge declined to refer the matter to a larger bench, citing no conflict between the mentioned cases.