NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today reserved its judgement on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Article 370 of the Constitution that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“File your written submissions. We will consider it and will pass an order,” a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said.
During the brief hearing, the counsel appearing for state of Jammu and Kashmir told the bench that a similar issue was raised before the Supreme Court but it had refused to intervene in it.
The counsel claimed that the PIL was “nothing but a politically motivated petition”.
Countering the submissions, the lawyer appearing for petitioner Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha argued that the issue raised by him before the high court was different from the matter which was put before the apex court.
“In none of these cases (referred to by the counsel for Jammu and Kashmir) such issues were raised,” the lawyer said.
The bench, after hearing the arguments, asked both the parties to file their written submissions within a week.
In the plea, the petitioner has contended that Article 370 was a temporary provision that had lapsed with dissolution of the state’s Constituent Assembly in 1957.
It said the question before the court for its consideration was whether the temporary provision lapsed automatically with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir on January 26, 1957.(Agencies)
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