Article 370: Supreme Court To Deliver Historic Verdict Today

The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment today, November 11, on a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir. A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, is all set to deliver the historic verdict.

Apart from Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, the other key members of the Constitution bench are Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant. The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on this matter on September 5 after hearing arguments from the petitioners and the central government for 16 days. In August 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled a proposal in Parliament for the scrapping of Article 370. The Centre also proposed that the state be bifurcated into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Notably, Article 370 restricted the central government”s legislative powers with respect to the state and also gave the state legislature the right to make its own laws in all matters except for defence, finance, foreign affairs, and communications. The petitioners have termed the central government”s move an attack on the federal structure of the country and “fraud on the Constitution.” However, the Centre denied all the allegations of any “constitutional fraud” in the abrogation process. In 2020, petitioners had urged the court to transfer this case to a seven-judge Constitution Bench. However, the apex court denied it. Senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subramanium, Rajeev Dhawan, and Dushyant Dave, represented the petitioners in this case. On the other hand, the Centre was represented by Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Harish Salve, and Rakesh Dwivedi. Meanwhile, security measures have been strengthened across Kashmir ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict.