SC refuses to refer petitions on Article 370 to a 7-judge bench

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to refer to a seven-judge Constitution bench a bunch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of changes in Article 370 for scrapping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir and said the issue would continue to be heard by the five-judge bench.

A five-judge bench of Justices N V Ramana, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant, which was set up to decide the issue, said there was no reason to refer the case to a larger bench. It did not find merit in the plea of some of the petitioners, who alleged there was contradiction in the verdicts of two five-judge SC benches on the scope of Article 370 as they sought reference of the case to larger bench. The petitioners argued that two SC judgments — Prem Nath Kaul versu