SC to hear plea against Article 370 on Tuesday

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Srinagar: The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a plea challenging the validity of Article 370 of the Constitution of India that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The petitioner, Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, has challenged the April 11 order of the Delhi High Court rejecting here plea saying nothing survives in it as the apex court has already dismissed a similar prayer on the issue.

On August 8, a bench comprising then Chief Justice J S Khehar and justices Adarsh Goel and D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the centre and the state government, seeking response to the petition which also sought a direction to declare the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir as “void”, “illegal” and “ultravires” of the Constitution of India.

As per the court’s registry, the notice to centre was issued through Advocate B.V. Balramdas and to state by registered post.

The government of India has not filed counter affidavit so far. Similarly, the registry said, notice has been delivered to the state government but no one has entered appearance so far.

In her petition, Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha claimed that the Delhi High Court had dismissed her plea by “wrongly following and misreading” the earlier judgement of the apex court.

She had contended in the high court that Article 370 was a temporary provision that had lapsed with the dissolution of the state’s Constituent Assembly in 1957.

The petition had claimed that the continuance of Article 370 even after the dissolution of the state’s Constituent Assembly and the J-K Constitution never getting the assent of the President of India or Parliament or Government of India, amounted to “fraud on the basic structure of our Constitution”.

In July 2014, the Supreme Court had dismissed Jha’s plea challenging the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir and had asked here to move the high court.

In Sampat Prakash v. the State of Jammu & Kashmir(1969), the Supreme Court held that the Article 370 will cease to operate under sub-clause (3) only when a recommendation is made by the Constituent Assembly of the State to that effect.