Article 370: Supreme Court gives 28 days time to Center to reply

A Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in India has given the Central Government 28 days to abolish Article 370 and respond to other petitions related to Kashmir.

A constitutional bench headed by Justice NV Raman has also asked the petitioners to present their side in the court within a week after the Center's reply.

The Supreme Court has fixed November 14 for the next hearing of the case.

On behalf of the Central Government in India, Attorney General KK Venugopal had asked the court for four weeks' time to reply to the Jammu and Kashmir petitions.

Numerous petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the removal of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, freedom of the press, ban on communication facilities, validity of lockdown and on-going restrictions and human rights violations. .

The Supreme Court did not give any order regarding this in the first hearing and also refused to hear arguments about it immediately. The court said, "If the decision comes in your favor then everything can be restored."

The court also said that it will not accept any other petition in this regard.

However, the petitioners opposed the grant of four weeks' time to the central government and said that this would make the purpose of filing the petitions redundant.

The Union Territory of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir will formally come into existence on October 31, 2019. A three-member committee has been formed for the division of assets between the two union territories.