SC sets up five-judge Constitution bench to hear pleas from Oct 1

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday set up a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice N V Ramana which will commence hearing from October 1 on a batch of pleas mounting legal challenges to the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The bench also comprises justices S K Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Suryakant.

The five-judge bench will examine the constitutional validity of the scrapping of the article's provisions and the subsequent presidential orders on it, the source added.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on August 28, while referring the petitions to the Constitution bench, had said that a larger bench will begin hearing the matter effective from the first week of October.

Several petitions have been filed in the apex court, which includes pleas by the National Conference, Sajjad Lone-led Peoples Conference and several other individuals, and also a plea by advocate M. L. Sharma, who was the first to move the court on the matter.

These petitions have also challenged the bifurcation of the state into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Union Territories will come into existence on October 31.

Besides the Constitution bench set up to conduct the hearing on Article 370, the top court has also constituted a three-judge bench for hearing matters related to the capital punishment and two other benches with two-judges to conduct hearing on tax matters.