Article 370: Supreme Court Refuses To Refer Cases To Larger Bench

The Supreme Court on Monday (2 March) declined to refer a larger bench the petitions challenging the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, reports India Today.

The five-judge bench under Justice N V Ramana will continue to hear the cases related to Article 370. It should be noted that the present order is only limited to the issue of whether there a larger bench needs to hear the cases related to Article 370.

The court ruled that there was no direct conflict of opinion between two judgments — Prem Nath Kaul versus Jammu and Kashmir in 1959 and Sampat Prakash versus Jammu and Kashmir in 1970 — about the nature and extent of Article 370 and hence no larger bench is required.

Earlier, NGO People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association and an intervener 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 Supreme Court -- Prem Nath Kaul versus Jammu and Kashmir in 1959 and Sampat Prakash versus Jammu and Kashmir in 1970 -- which dealt with the issue of Article 370 were both delivered by five-judge benches and are in direct conflict with each other and therefore the current bench of five judges could not hear the issue.

It should be noted that at least 23 petitions were filed in the top court challenging the government’s decision of scrapping away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.