On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India refused to grant an urgent hearing on a petition filed by advocate ML Sharma challenging the scrapping of Article 370, reports Live Law.
According to the reports, a Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice NV Ramana declined to pass any order for urgent listing of the matter before the court.
Advocate ML Sharma, known for his frivolous PILs, had moved Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order.
In his petition, Sharma had stated that the said Presidential Order, which has the effect of scrapping the special status of the state of J&K is unconstitutional as it was passed without taking consent from the state assembly. The petition also stated that Article 370 cannot be nullified by exercising powers under Article 370 itself and hence the Order is ultra vires.
During the hearing, Advocate ML Sharma said the reason for the urgency for filing a petition was that Pakistan may take the matter to the United Nations and we will lose Kashmir forever. “Can UN stay Indian Constitution’s amendment”, asked Justice Ramana.
The Centre had on Monday revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two union territories – Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Manohar Lal Sharma is a notoriously known filling frivolous Public Interest Litigations (PIL) and earning court’s wrath. The Supreme Court has time and again refused to entertain PILs filed by ML Sharma.
In July this year, he had gone to the Supreme Court questioning the use of EVMs in elections and had sought the cancellation of recently concluded Lok Sabha election. However, the Supreme Court rejected his petition.
In December last year, advocate Manohar Lal Sharma had earned court’s wrath and was asked to pay fines several times in the past. He was fined ₹50,000 and ₹25,000 by the court on two occasions in 2014 for wasting the court’s time with frivolous petitions.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had said that the day has come to ban him from filing PILs. The court made such remark due to the history of Sharma’s petitions.
