Kashmir has reacted with cautious optimism to the Supreme Court's decision to hear from July 11 the petitions challenging the dilution of Article 370.
Recently when Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud was on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Valley politicians had expressed concern over the prolonged delay in the hearing of the 20-odd petitions.
The Supreme Court on Monday said a five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Chandrachud and also having Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant would begin the hearing of the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 on July 11.
“Finally the bench is constituted. I look forward to the hearings beginning in right earnest now,” former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted.
“Welcoming the decision of the constitutional bench, albeit delayed, to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the division of the historic state,” CPM veteran Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, who heads the five-party alliance seeking restoration of special status, tweeted.
Tarigami said the 2019 move was an assault on the constitutional order and was implemented without the consent of the people. He said he hoped “the unilateral decision taken on August 5, 2019, is rolled back and justice delivered”.
A Supreme Court notice on Monday said it was hearing the petitions titled “Shah Faesal and others”. Faesal, Kashmir's celebrity IAS topper turned politician who was the first to challenge the dilution of special status in 2019, is said to have approached the court last year seeking deletion of his name from a pending petition.
Faesal had almost switched to the separatist camp following the scrapping of special status and batted for the right to self-determination for Kashmiris, but has since backtracked and returned to government service.