W.P.(C) No. 1099/2019

IN RE ARTICLE 370 OF THE CONSTITUTION VS

 The Supreme Court rejected the petitions and upheld the abolition of Article 370 and the reorganisation of the State of J&K into two Union Territories. The Judgment of the Court was authored by Chief Justice Chandrachud. Justice Sanjay K. Kaul and Justice Sanjiv Khanna wrote separate concurring opinions. The Supreme Court found that Article 370 was a “temporary” provision enacted until the special circumstances facing J&K were resolved. The Court held the President could not use a Constitutional Order to indirectly amend the Constitution to make the removal of Article 370 conditional on the recommendation of the State Legislature instead of the J&K Constituent Assembly. But it also found that the “recommendation” of the J&K Constituent Assembly under Article 370(3) would never have been binding on the President of India, who always had the power to remove Article 370. After the dissolution of the J&K Constituent Assembly, the President could abolish Article 370 whenever the President thought appropriate. The Court also held that the passage of the J&K Reorganisation Act did not violate the procedure for the reorganisation of States in Article 3. The Government of India stated that the Union Territory of J&K would be made a State again, and thus the Court did not decide the legality of converting the State of J&K into two Union Territories. The Court directed that elections to the Legislative Assembly for the Union Territory of J&K be held by 30 September 2024.