The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear pleas against Articles 35-A and 370 – granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir – on February 20 or 21.
“The case is listed in the advance regular cause-list at serial no. 12 from February 20 to 21. However, it became clear this evening that it does not figure in final list of February 19. So the case may now come up in the final list of 20 or 21 February,” a source told Greater Kashmir. As many as five petitions stand filed in the Supreme Court against Article 35-A, with the lead case filed in 2014 by a little known Delhi-based NGO ‘We The Citizens’.
Besides, a Special Leave Petition is also pending disposal before the apex court filed after Delhi High Court dismissed a plea against Article 370.
In its defence of the Article, the J&K government has cited two verdicts by the Constitution benches of the Supreme Court in 1961 and 1969, which had upheld the powers of the President under Article 370(1)(d) of the Constitution of India to pass such orders.
The Article was incorporated in the Constitution in 1954 by an order of presidentRajendra Prasad on the advice of the then Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet.