GANDERBAL, 4 Jul: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday expressed hope that the Supreme Court will expedite the hearings in the petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370 and reorganise the erstwhile state into two union territories.
Nearly four years after the government abrogated the provisions of Article 370 that bestowed a special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will take up a batch of pleas challenging the decision for hearing on 11 July.
“It is better late than never. We have been eagerly waiting for this day. Hearings would start on 11 July and we hope that they would be expedited as soon as this case is addressed in the Supreme Court and a verdict will come out,” Abdullah told reporters here, 25 kilometres from Srinagar.
The former chief minister said that his party has no hopes from the BJP-led NDA government to restore the pre-August 2019 status of Jammu & Kashmir.
“We have been saying this from day one that whatever
has been snatched from us on 5 August, 2019, we shouldn’t have any hope from the present dispensation that they will bring that back to us. Our fight is long but in a peaceful manner and through democratic and constitutional ways. We want to get back whatever has been snatched from us,” he added. (PTI)
