The Supreme Court Monday declined to refer to a larger 7-judge bench a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 on August 5 last year.
A 5-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana said there were no reasons to refer the matter to a larger bench.
NGO, People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association and an intervenor had sought referring of the matter to a larger bench on the ground that two judgements of the apex court - Prem Nath Kaul versus Jammu & Kashmir in 1959 and Sampat Prakash versus Jammu and Kashmir in 1970 - which dealt with the issue of Article 370 were conflicted each other and therefore, the current bench of five judges could not hear the issue.
Disagreeing with the petitioners, the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant, said it was of the opinion that “there is no conflict between the judgements”.