The Supreme Court today said it would consider the plea seeking urgent hearing of a Public Interest Litigation challenging the Constitutional validity of Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament’s power to make laws for the state.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose took note of the submission of BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay that his PIL be listed for an urgent hearing. On 18th February this year as well, he had mentioned the PIL for urgent listing for the hearing.

Upadhyay, in his plea which was filed in September last year, has contended that the special provision was temporary in nature at the time of framing of the Constitution and Article 370(3) lapsed with the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly on 26th January 1957.

The plea also seeks a declaration from the apex court that the separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was arbitrary and unconstitutional on various grounds, including that it was against the supremacy of the Constitution of India and contrary to dictum of ‘One Nation, One Constitution, One National Anthem and One National Flag’.

The petition claims that the maximum life span of Article 370 was only till the existence of the Constituent Assembly, that was 26th January, 1950 when the national document was adopted. Article 370 is a temporary provision with respect to Jammu and Kashmir and restricts the applicability of various provisions of the Constitution by curtailing the power of Parliament to make laws on subjects which fall under the Union and Concurrent lists, it said.

It claimed that the Article empowered the State Legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violation of the right to equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution.