The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed the petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 for hearing on August 2.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Maul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Surya Kant said in the week starting August 2, the Apex Court will get Wednesday and Thursday and then continue again on Tuesday.
Appearing for the Central government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that since the CJI and Justice Khanna were not on earlier Bench, just for procedural reasons a convenience compilation was to be filed.
The CJI responded that Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had joined the proceedings over video-conferencing.
The SG said that earlier, there was a direction to file compliance affidavit, adding that the parties may need to add to it.
Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran argued that links were available.
The top court of the country directed the parties to complete everything by July 25.
Senior Advocate C.U. Singh sought liberty to file a fresh counter reply.
Justice Kaul observed that the Apex Court ha heard the business of additional affidavits and additional compilations in detail.
He said there was diversion on whether it should go before a five or seven judge bench.
The Supreme Court said that he was at a loss to understand why there was a need to file additional documents.
Singh contended that the Centre has filed a fresh affidavit.
SG Mehta responded that the affidavit filed by the Centre showed the position of the state after the abrogation.
The Supreme Court observed that in the matter related to petitions seeking legalisation of same sex marriage, the Apex Court kept getting fresh submissions and rejoinder submissions till it pronounced the verdict.
It recalled that till the last evening, the top court of the country got 1,000-page compilations till the last evening. It observed that it was unfair to others. Once the compilation was filed, it has to be frozen, noted the court.
The CJI noted that the affidavit of the Centre would have no bearing on the constitutional question.
Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave contended that the affidavit has been widely reported in the press.
The Supreme Court observed that it cannot control what was there in the press.
When Dave said that they have not received a copy, the SG assured that he would give the copy to them.
SG Mehta said that there could not be any reason for any party to shy away on the situation which was there in the state after abrogation.
The Supreme Court said that the Constitution Bench would commence hearing the petitions on abrogation of Article 370 at 10:30 am of August 2 and then proceed on a day-to-day basis barring miscellaneous days – Monday and Friday.
The Apex court appointed Advocates Prasanna and Kanu Aggarwal as nodal counsels for preparation of common convenience compilations.
It said that since the compilations already prepared earlier, more additions should be made.
The Apex Court directed the Nodal Counsels to ensure that compilations were indexed and paginated by July 27. Besides, all counsels should be given the copies, it added.
The CJI-led Bench further directed that written submissions should be filed on or before July 27 and no more submissions should be allowed thereafter.
The SG submitted that though the Union of India has filed an additional affidavit setting out the Central government’s view on post notification development, it would have no bearing on the constitutional question and it would not be relied upon.