Centre, governor acted in tandem to toss out Article 370: Petitioners to Supreme Court

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Article 370 of the Constitution in the Supreme Court on Thursday argued that the legislature had no power to alter its status and that the way it was tossed out was a “mosaic of illegalities”. “Constituent assembly while drafting it decided that…the legislature cannot change” the status of Article 370, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued on behalf of the petitioners. “That is the element of permanency,” he added.

The “political act of abrogation of Article 370 was to achieve some political objective de hors the provision of law”, he argued, adding that it was a “mosaic of illegalities”. The senior lawyer went on to argue that the governor can dissolve the legislative assembly “only on the aid and advice of the council of ministers but nothing of that (sort) happened when the assembly (of J&K) was dissolved in November 2018”. He said the governor did not wait for a single day after BJP withdrew support to the coalition government led by Mehbooba Mufti of PDP in June 2018.

“Immediately on the next day, he dissolved the assembly. PDP faxed the governor that they have support of National Conference Party and would form the government, but the governor said he was in Jammu and the fax was sent to Srinagar,” Sibal told the bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud. The “governor and government (at the Centre) were acting in tandem to toss out Article 370”, he claimed.

The petitions will now come up for resumed hearing on Tuesday. The top court commenced the final hearing of a clutch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution — which granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir – on Wednesday. Sibal on Wednesday had contended that it was “not in the remit of parliament to take a political