A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud is scheduled to give its verdict on the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on December 11, primarily on the cardinal issue raised by petitioners as to whether the now-extinct provision was part of the basic structure and beyond the amending powers of Parliament.
The Bench had, during the hearings, repeatedly questioned the petitioners’ claim that Article 370, which gave special privileges to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, had assumed a permanent character as soon as the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 1957 after the framing of the State Constitution.
The petitioners had argued that the Parliament had no authority to abrogate. In fact, they contended that clause (3) of Article 370, which empowered the President to abrogate the Article, as done on August 5, 2019, had ceased to exist.
