In a recent legal development, the Supreme Court has yet to make a decision after discussing a series of petitions. These petitions challenge the government’s move to cancel Article 370 of the Constitution. This article used to give a special status to the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The people who filed the petitions also argue against the J&K Re-organization Act, which was used to split the region into two separate Union territories.
A group of five judges, including Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, listened to these arguments for 16 days. This is a big deal because this case had been put on hold for more than three years.
Hasnain Masoodi, a leader from the National Conference and one of the people who filed the petitions, was happy with how the arguments went. He said, “We are happy with the discussions. Both sides presented their arguments well.”
The discussions started on August 2 and continued for 16 days. During this time, the Supreme Court heard a lot from both sides. According to LiveLaw, the lawyers for the people who filed the petitions talked for the first nine days. They talked about how Jammu and Kashmir was connected to India and said that the leader of J&K didn’t give up its power to India.
On the other hand, the government said that getting rid of Article 370 helped people in J&K feel less divided. They also said that Article 370 was always supposed to be temporary.
Well-known lawyers, like Kapil Sibal, Zaffar Shah, Gopal Subramanium, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave, and Dinesh Dwivedi, spoke for the people who filed the petitions. On the government’s side, the legal team included Attorney General of India R Venkataramani, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, and Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, who strongly defended the government’s decision.
