Former Justice Nariman finds SC judgment on Article 370 disturbing
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New Delhi: Former Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Nariman criticised the Supreme Court, for its recent decision upholding the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which had granted Jammu and Kashmir special status. He said the decision was extremely disturbing and had a significant impact on federalism.
The former judge claimed that the Union administration had been able to circumvent Article 356, which stipulates that a president can only rule a state for a year, by the Supreme Court's refusal to rule on the conversion of the State into a Union territory, Free Press Journal reported.
Justice Nariman said: “Article 356 deals with Constitutional breakdown when Centre takes over. In no circumstances can it go beyond one year, unless there is a national emergency or the Election Commission should say elections are not possible.” To bypass this, the Central government came up with an ingenious way of converting the State into a Union Territory.
"So how do you bypass Article 356? You bypass it by this ingenious method of making the State Union Territories, where you have direct Central control and no problem as to time (limit),” he added.