Article 370: Supreme Court to hear petitions from August 2; Union Govt’s affidavit not to argue constitutionality

On July 11, the Supreme Court of India fixed August 2 as the date to start hearing the batch of petitions challenging the amendment to Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which stripped the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir of its special status. The petitions also challenge the J&K Re-organisation Act of 2019 which bifurcated the erstwhile J&K into two Union Territories – Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The case was listed on July 11 for completing the pre-hearing formalities. The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the matters would be heard on a day-to-day basis from August 2, except on Mondays and Fridays. A Constitution Bench, comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice SK Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant, is scheduled to hear the petitions challenging the amendment to Article 370.

Justice Kaul asked if there was a need to file any additional affidavits in the case. He said that now the other side would file a rejoinder affidavit and the process would go on. On July 10, the Government of India filed an affidavit informing the court about the present status of the UT of J&K after the amendment of Article 370.

The Government of India’s counsel, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, said that the government’s affidavit reflects the present situation of the region, and thus, no rejoinder to that may be necessary. CJI remarked that the Government of India’s affidavit would not have any bearing on the constitutional question concerning the case. “The affidavit of the centre has no bearing on the constitutional question,” CJI said.

Meanwhile, the petitioner’s counsel, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, contended that the Government of India’s affidavit must be disregarded. The Solicitor General clarified that the government’s affidavit would not be relied upon to argue constitutional questions.

“Solicitor General has informed that though the Union has filed an additional affidavit giving its perspective on the post-notification developments, the contents of the affidavit have no bearing on constitutional issues and thus are not to be relied on for that purpose,” the court noted. The court further directed that all written submissions and compilations must be filed before the court by July 27, 2023.

Furthermore, Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran informed the court that Shah Faesal and Shehla Rashid do not wish to continue as petitioners in the case, and have requested that their names are deleted from the array of parties. Thereafter, the court passed an order to that effect and said that the causetitle would be amended. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan suggested that the causetitle be changed to “In Re: Article 370 petitions.” The court agreed to the same and passed an order to that effect.

Government of India’s Affidavit

On July 10, the Government of India filed an affidavit informing the Supreme Court of the developments in J&K in the past 3 years, since the amendment of Article 370 revoked erstwhile J&K of its special status. The government submitted that since the amendment, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and other public institutions have been functioning in the region without strikes or disturbances.

“The earlier practice of daily hartals, strikes, stone pelting and bandhs are a thing of the past now,” the government said.

The government also said that normalcy has returned to the region after over three decades of turmoil. The government further said that a duly elected 3-tier Panchayati Raj system had been established in J&K, for the first time, as a step to strengthen democracy at the grassroots level.

The government also submitted that the security situation in J&K has significantly improved since Article 370 was amended. The government cited data indicating ‘law and order events’ were reduced by 97.2 percent and ‘terror initiated instances’ reduced by 45.2 percent in 2022, compared with the figures in 2018.

The government said that terrorist recruitment from the region dropped from 199 in 2018 to 12 in 2023. The government said that its anti-terror actions resulted in the dismantling of the terror ecosystem in the region. The government further submitted that its policies have helped the Kashmiri youth with employment opportunities.

“For the first time, after independence, the residents of the region are enjoying the same rights which the residents of other parts of the country are enjoying. This has resulted into bringing the people of the region into the mainstream and thereby inevitably frustrating the sinister design of secessionist and anti-national forces,” the government said.