SC to decide on Monday if Article 370 pleas should be referred to a larger bench

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will pronounce on Monday its order on whether petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370 be referred to a larger bench.

The petitions are heard by a five-judge bench presided by Justice NV Ramana and comprising Justices SK Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant.

The Constitution bench had reserved the order on a batch of petitions on January 23.

During the hearing of the case last month, the Central government had said that the abrogation of Article 370 allowed the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union and added that the move is "irreversible".

However, advocate Dr Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said that the Centre deliberately imposed the President's rule in the erstwhile state and downgraded its status to a Union Territory using Article 3 of the Constitution of India.

Several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Central government's decision of withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

The Central government by its August 5, 2019 decision had scrapped the Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.