Supreme Court refuses to refer Article 370 Cases to Larger Bench

Supreme Court on Monday refused to refer the issue of scrapping Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir to a larger bench. The 5-judge Top Court bench will continue to hear the cases related to Article 370.

The Apex Court order is confined to the issue of whether there a larger bench needs to hear the cases related to Article 370.

The Top Court has refused to refer to a larger bench a batch of pleas, challenging the constitutional validity of the Aug 5 decision of the Centre of abrogating provisions of Article 370.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana will continue to hear the batch of petitions on Article 370.

NGO People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Jammu & Kashmir HC Bar Association & an intervenor had sought referring the matter to a larger bench.

The petitioners sought reference to a larger bench on the ground that two judgments of the SC -- Prem Nath Kaul versus Jammu & Kashmir in 1959 & Sampat Prakash versus Jammu & Kashmir in 1970 -- which dealt with the issue of Article 370 are in direct conflict each other & therefore the current bench of five judges couldn't hear the issue.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had told the Top Court bench -- also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai & Surya Kant -- that "the abrogation of provisions of Article 370, has now become a "fait accompli" leaving sole option to accept the change".

Referring to the two earlier judgments, Venugopal had said that they weren't related to each other & dealt with different issues.

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