Covid puts pleas against Article 370 on SC backburner

NEW DELHI: After Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution was scrapped and it was bifurcated into UTs, the Supreme Court had regularly heard arguments challenging the Centre's decision from August last year till March, but with Covid-19 disrupting normal court functioning, early hearing on the pending petitions appears unlikely.
On March 2, a five-judge bench of Justices N V Ramana, Sanjay K Kaul, R S Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant had rejected the prayer of some petitioners to refer the issue to a seven-judge bench. Thereafter, the SC closed for Holi and when it opened, the pandemic forced the court to hear a limited number of cases through video-conferencing.
As there are two dozen petitions and more than 50 lawyers are likely to attend the proceedings, in addition to journalists and court staff, it is unlikely that hearing on these petitions will take place any time soon.