Judgment day: Next fight over Article 370 could move to Supreme Court

The Bharatiya Janata Party- (BJP-) led central government on Monday moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha to abrogate the Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. According to the terms of the new resolution moved by Home Minister Amit Shah, while Jammu and Kashmir will be a Union Territory with a Legislative Assembly, the Ladakh region will be a Union Territory without any legislative powers. 
 

The political tug-of-war on the issue aside, there are also speculations that the BJP’s move to delete Article 370 could be challenged legally in the Supreme Court. The government’s decision to amend Article 367 to replace the constituent assembly with the Legislative Assembly could also come under challenge. If the apex court agrees to hear the petitions challenging the removal of Article 370, it would be interesting to see if there is an immediate status quo on further proceedings or decide on it after hearing all the petitions. 
 

The decision of the government flies in face of a 2016 judgment by a two-judge apex court Bench of (Retired) Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, which had held that the provision had over the years acquired permanent space in the Constitution and could not be abrogated now. 
 
In the judgment, the two-judge Bench had said though it can be noticed in the marginal note states that Article 370 is a temporary provision with respect to Jammu and Kashmir, unlike Article 369, which is also a temporary provision limited in point of time to five years from the commencement of this Constitution, no such limit is to be found in Article 370.