Two more pleas on 370 in SC

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 17

Two more petitions were filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court challenging the Presidential Orders that ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

While the first PIL is by former interlocutor on J&K Radha Kumar, former IAS officers Gopal Pillai and Amitabha Pande and certain retired defence officers, the second one is by former BBC correspondent Satish Jacob and Kashmiri writer Inderjit Tickoo.

The petitions have also challenged the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories, sources said. They contended that abrogation of Article 370 could not have been done without the recommendation of the J&K Constituent Assembly.

With the filing of these PILs, the number of petitions on the issues arising out of abrogation of Article 370 has gone up to eight. Four of the six petitions already filed are defective.

Taking strong exception to filing of defective petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court had on Friday refused to take them up. It had directed the Registry to place them before the CJI immediately after the defects were cured.