Supreme Court agrees to hear plea by J&K People’s Conference against abrogation of Article 370

The Supreme Court has issued notice in a plea filed by the Jammu & Kashmir People’s Conference assailing the Presidential Orders of August 5 and August 6, which effectively abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution. This plea has been tagged with the other related petitions to be heard by the Constitution Bench..The petitioner, a political party, was represented by Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhavan and Huzefa Ahmadi before the three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer..The Court initially expressed its reluctance to entertain the petition, stating that the challenge to the decision to revoke the special status and subsequent abrogation of Article 370 has already been referred to a Constitution Bench. However, the Bench went on to issue notice in the petition, while tagging it with the batch of similar petitions scheduled to be taken up by a Constitution Bench in the first week of October..On being told that the petitioner was local political party from Jammu & Kashmir, CJI Gogoi, in lighter vein said,.“You should have been the first one to come to Court then.”.In this petition, it is contended that the President’s proclamation under Article 356 of the Constitution dated December 19, 2018 – which was further extended with effect from July 3, 2019 – is unconstitutional. It is the contention of the petitioners that the proclamation violates Article 14 for having no rational nexus with the objects of the proclamation, is manifestly arbitrary, and is in violation of the basic feature of federalism..The “concurrence” of the state government for the revocation of the special status has been taken despite there being no popularly elected government in the State of Jammu & Kashmir, it has been contended. It is, therefore, an affront on the Constitution of India and a blatant attack on the federal nature of the Indian Constitution, the petition states..The State of Jammu & Kashmir has been under the President’s Rule since June 2018, and all routine decisions of the state government are taken by the Governor, who himself is a delegate of the President under the Presidential proclamation issued under Article 356 (1) (a)..Therefore, the concurrence of the state government, which was provided by the Governor, does not express the will of the people, as the Governor is merely a substitute for a popularly elected government. The imposition of President’s Rule for the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India was an illegal and unconstitutional exercise of Article 356 of the Constitution of India, the petition states..The petitioners have also alleged that the Governor of Jammu & Kashmir kept the entire nation in the dark. The country was not informed that such a drastic action against the interest of the state was being taken..This petition will come up for hearing before a five-Judge Constitution Bench in the first week of October.