Supreme Court to pronounce judgment in Article 370 abrogation case on December 11

The Supreme Court will deliver its judgment in the Article 370 abrogation case on December 11, Monday [In Re: Article 370 of the Constitution].A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant will deliver its verdict in a batch of petitions challenging the Central government's 2019 move to revoke Article 370 which conferred special status on the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Court had heard the matter for 16 days before reserving its verdict on September 5. .The petitioners, represented by a battery of senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subramanium, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave and Gopal Sankaranarayanan had submitted that the Union of India by using brute majority in Parliament and issued a series of executive orders through the President to divide a full-fledged State into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The petitioners had termed it an attack on federalism and a fraud on the Constitution.Over 20 petitions were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Central government's 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which resulted in the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status. The erstwhile State was subsequently bifurcated into two Union Territories.When the matters were listed in March 2020, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had decided not to refer the batch of petitions to a seven-judge Constitution Bench, despite some petitioners seeking such a reference.On August 2, the top court began final hearing in the matter. It heard the case for 16 days before reserving its judgment.