"Using law, we want to take back what was taken away": Omar Abdullah as SC is set to hear pleas against Article 370 abrogation

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 4 : With the Supreme Court fixing July 11 to hear pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370, former J-K CM and Vice President of Jammu Kashmir National Conference Omar Abdullah said that using the law, they want to take back what was taken away from them.

"We want to take back what was taken away from us, using the law. We had been waiting for this day for a long time. We hope the hearing will get completed soon and the verdict will come out," Omar Abdullah said on Monday.

He further said that there is no expectation that the rights that were snatched from the people on August 5, 2019, will be restored under the BJP rule.

"We have been saying from day one that whatever has been snatched from us, we have no expectations that it will be restored by the incumbent government (BJP)," he added.

The Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution bench will hear on July 11 a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, and Surya Kant is set to hear the case on July 11. The Court will also take up the issue of whether the petition by bureaucrat Shah Faesal can be withdrawn.

The petitions which are pending since 2019 have not been taken up for hearing since March 2020.

Various petitions are pending before the top court challenging the validity of the law scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution and special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

On August 5, 2019, the Central government announced its decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 and split the region into two Union territories.

A five-judge Constitution bench in March 2020 had declined to refer to a larger 7-judge bench a batch of petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 on August 5, saying there were no reasons to refer the matter to a larger bench.

A number of petitions have been filed in the top court including those of private individuals, lawyers, activists and politicians and political parties challenging the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which splits Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.