The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stop the Centre from carving out two Union Territories (UTs) out of Jammu and Kashmir, telling petitioners who challenged the scrapping of Article 370 that the top court could always ‘turn the clock back.’
The Constitution bench, which was set up last week by Justice NV Ramana, gave the Centre four weeks to respond to a bunch of petitions that challenged the move to scrap J&K’s special status. It will take up the case again on November 14.
Senior lawyer Raju Ramachandran, who is representing one of the 10 petitioners, had asked the bench led by Justice NV Ramana to hold its hearing before this month-end or stop the government from carving out two UTs.
