The Supreme Court, which was hearing the petitions challenging the government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday deferred the hearing to December 10 and directed the suggested advocates to prepare a compilation of the material and documents.
The court also directed the centre to file a counter affidavit on or before November 22.
“There are a lot of petitions, so there may be a one common compilation from both the sides so that hearing the case becomes easier,” Bar and Bench quoted Justic Kaul as saying.
The court also issued a notice in two fresh petitions filed in relation to abrogation of Article 370, one filed by PUCL and another by Srinagar Bar Association noting that petitions raise some pertinent issues. The apex court had earlier barred the filing of any fresh petition in the issue.
The matter was heard by a five judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana. The bench also included Justices SK Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant.
The order from the court came after Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhavan suggested that a time frame may be set to complete the exercise.
“Now that 31st October has happened, on this side of the vacation hear us on things like division of assets, bifurcation of services and transfer of properties,” Bar and Bench quoted Dhavan as saying.
“There are some things that cannot be disentangled later,” he added.
Meanwhile, Senior Counsel Raju Ramachandran said, “We are anxious and we would suggest that the hearing in the case may begin on this side of the vacation.”
Ramachandran also suggested that hearing on these aspects may be afforded before the Court breaks for winter vacation.
The government on August 5 had abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir — ending its special status — and bifurcated the state into two union territories.
Earlier, the apex court also put embargo on filing of any fresh writ petition challenging constitutional validity on abrogation of Article 370.
The bench had said that one week time would be for the petitioners to file their replies to the counter-affidavit that would be filed by the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration within four weeks.
“We have to allow the Centre and the J&K administration to file counter-affidavit otherwise we can’t decide the matter,” the bench also comprising justices SK Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant said.
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