Supreme Court rules out referring pleas on Article 370 to larger bench

The Supreme Court on Monday (March 2) said there are no reasons to refer a batch of pleas, challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 on August 5 last year, to a larger bench.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana pronounced the order.

The apex court had on January 23 reserved its order on the issue of whether the batch of pleas would be referred to a larger seven-judge bench.

The Supreme Court had earlier heard the detailed arguments and submissions from the respective petitioners and respondent, including that of the Centre’s, and had reserved its judgement on the batch of petitions.

In August last year, the government abrogated Article 370, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the region into two Union territories-Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Since then, top leaders of the valley including former chief ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have been put under house arrest.

(With inputs from agencies.)