Article 370: SC to hear petitions in October, allows Yechury and Kashmiri student to visit Valley

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that all the petitions will now be heard by a five-judge constitution bench in the first week of October.
A security person checks the movement-pass of man at a check-point during curfew like restrictions on the 13th consecutive day following the abrogation of the provisions Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar Saturday August 17 2019. | PTI
A security person checks the movement-pass of man at a check-point during curfew like restrictions on the 13th consecutive day following the abrogation of the provisions Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar Saturday August 17 2019. | PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Centre and State of Jammu and Kashmir on a clutch of pleas challenging the validity of the decision to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that all the petitions will now be heard by a five-judge constitution bench in the first week of October.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the apex court decision and pleaded the bench not to issue the notice as it has got cross-border ramifications.

Echoing the same views, Attorney General KK Venugopal also called it a very sensitive issue, saying whatever happens here is raked up before the UN.

"We will refer the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench", the bench also comprising justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer said while not accepting the arguments that the issuance of notice will have a "cross-border repercussion".

As the counsel appearing for both sides were involved in arguments and counter-arguments, the bench said, "We know what to do, we have passed the order, we are not going to change".

However, the bench said it will not change its order seeking a response from the Centre and states.

On the petition on media curbs, the court issued notice to the Centre and sought a response in seven days from the government.

The petitioner alleged that there was a complete clampdown on communication and media freedom.

Similarly, on Tehseen Poonawalla's petition on the restrictions on Kashmir, the court issued notice and sought the government’s response in seven days.

The Supreme court also allowed a Jamia Millia student to travel to Anantnag, and be given police protection, if required, to meet his parents.

The court asked the law student Mohd Aleem Syed to come back and report.

The bench told senior advocate Sanjay Hegde that if the Jamia student wants to travel to Anantnag on Thursday then the court order will be made available to him in one hour.

Syed, in his plea filed through advocate Mrigank Prabhakar, said he is a permanent resident of Anantnag and since August 4-5, he has not received any information about his parents.

Syed said that he suspects that his parents have been detained in Kashmir as he was not able to contact them by any means or manner.

He had submitted in his plea that there is a complete shut down of Internet and phone services since the issuance of Presidential order and passage of Jammu and Kashmir (reorganization) bill, 2019.

He contended that this information blackout and restrictions on the movement of people is violative of fundamental rights granted under the Constitution.

The court also allowed CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to travel to Srinagar to meet former MLA Tarigami but warned him that the permission to visit is only for visiting the party colleague and nothing else. If he goes here and there then the authorities can stop him.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran appearing for Yechury assured the court that his client will abide by the court’s order.

SG Mehta opposes the decision by the court of allowing Yechury but CJI said, “If a citizen wants to visit a part of the country, he must have access to.”

The first petition challenging the presidential order scrapping Article 370 was filed by advocate M L Sharma, who was later joined by another lawyer from Jammu and Kashmir, Shakir Shabir.

National Conference (NC), a prominent political party from Jammu and Kashmir, filed a petition on August 10, contending that the changes brought in the status of the state had taken away the rights of its citizens without their mandate.

Arguing that the legislation approved by Parliament and the orders issued by the President subsequently were "unconstitutional", the petition prayed for those to be declared as "void and inoperative".

The petition was filed by Mohammad Akbar Lone and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, both Lok Sabha members of the NC.

Lone is a former speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and Masoodi is a retired judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, who ruled in 2015 that Article 370 was a permanent feature of the Constitution.

There are other petitions challenging the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370, including a plea filed by a group of former defence officers and bureaucrats, who have sought directions declaring the presidential orders of August 5 as "unconstitutional, void and inoperative".

The plea was filed by professor Radha Kumar, a former member of the Home Ministry's Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir (2010-11), former IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre Hindal Haidar Tyabji, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak, Major General (retd) Ashok Kumar Mehta, former Punjab-cadre IAS officer Amitabha Pande and former Kerala-cadre IAS officer Gopal Pillai, who retired as the Union home secretary in 2011.

A petition has also been filed by bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal, along with his party colleague and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) leader Shehla Rashid.

(With PTI Inputs)

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