PDP, NC welcome SC listing petitions challenging Article 370 abrogation, express faith in judiciary

Srinagar, Jul 3 (PTI) The PDP and the National Conference on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to list for hearing petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state.

Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, both former chief ministers of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, welcomed the listing of the petitions.

Nearly four years after the government abrogated Article 370 that bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will take up for hearing on July 11 a batch of pleas challenging the decision.

According to a notice issued on the apex court website on Monday, the five-judge bench will take up the pleas for passing directions.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba said in a tweet, “Welcome Hon’ble SC’s decision to finally hear petitions pending since 2019 challenging the illegal abrogation of Article 370. I hope justice is upheld and delivered for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba went on to add, “The SC ruling on Article 370 maintained that the provision can be abrogated only on the recommendation of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly.”

National Conference leader Abdullah said he is looking forward to the Supreme Court hearing petitions challenging the abrogation.

“Finally the bench is constituted. I look forward to the hearings beginning in right earnest now,” he said in a tweet.

On August 5, 2019, the Centre decided to strip the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Speaking to PTI in a video interview, senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar said the apex court listing was a case of “better late than never”.

“We have been waiting for this day for the last four years now. People of Jammu and Kashmir, who had acceded to this country, on the basis of democracy, Constitutional values were cheated and ultimately disempowered,” Akhtar said.

He said the judiciary remains the last hope for the people of Jammu and Kashmir as it “has upheld the rights of individuals and the groups of individuals”.

Akhtar said he hopes the petitions will be dealt with urgently and heard daily like the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir case.

“Our president (Mehbooba) made an appeal to the CJI (Chief Justice of India) to expedite the listing of this important case as it is now turning into an existential problem,” he added.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir have been completely thrown out of the system, he said.

“Somebody else is deciding our destiny. So we appeal and look forward to the expeditious hearing of this case, maybe like the Ram Mandir case, Babri Masjid case, so that the wrong very patently done to us is righted and nobody other than the Supreme Court can do it . We have full faith in the judicial system of this country,” he said.

Tanvir Sadiq, the National Conference’s chief spokesperson, said the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have been eagerly waiting for this day.

“We have complete trust in our courts and are hopeful that they prioritise the matters, the arguments can be concluded expeditiously and a judgment delivered. The National Conference has consistently expressed confidence in the strength of our case and we believe we have a very strong case against what happened on August 5, 2019,” Sadiq said.

Awami National Conference leader Muzaffar Shah, however, said the listing of the petitions had nothing to do with the matter pertaining to the main case.

“This has nothing to do with the Article 370 main case. As Mr Shah Faesel is a petitioner in this petition, he wants to withdraw that. The Supreme Court is hearing it because he has taken up a government job and he wants to withdraw.

“It’s on that subject only. There is no information on the main petition, our lawyers are there, we are ready to face it anytime anywhere but this particular case on July 11 is only because Shah Faesel has sought withdrawing the petition, it’s only confined to that nothing else,” Shah claimed.

Faesal, a 2010-batch IAS officer, was detained for over a year after Article 370 was scrapped. He resigned from service and launched the Jammu Kashmir People’s Movement, a political entity in January 2019. The government didn’t accept his resignation and Faesal, a doctor, was later posted to the Union Ministry of Culture.

Faesal filed the petition in the top court in 2019.

In April 2022, the government accepted Faesal’s application for withdrawing his resignation from service and reinstated him. That same month, Faesal filed an application seeking the deletion of his name from the list of seven petitioners who challenged the scrapping of Article 370.