New Delhi: Senior Indian advocate Dushyant Dave has said that the exercise of abrogating Article 370 suffers from “fraud” on the Indian Constitution and was done “completely contrary” to the provisions of the Constitution.
Advocate Dushyant Dave said this during the ongoing hearing in the Indian Supreme Court of the petitions challenging the repeal of Article 370, which granted special status to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
He pointed out that the exercise of the power by the President or Parliament has to be done under the Constitution itself and in a constitutional sense. “In my sense, constitutional sense or constitutional provisions prohibited both — the President and Parliament — from touching Article 370(3) in any manner to abrogate it,” he argued.
During the hearing the before the 5-judge Constitution Bench, Advocate Dave referred to his written submissions where the election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party has been quoted. “In that, they expressly said that they will work towards abrogation of Article 370 … these manifestos cannot be contrary to the constitutional scheme. In 2015, EC (election commission) issued guidelines that all manifestos must be within constitutional scheme and spirit,” he said.
He argued that Article 370 was abrogated to gain political weightage by the ruling party at the Centre. “You have not done it for any purpose. These arguments of impeding growth, etc., are not relevant at all. It doesn’t exist. The only reason you have done it, is because you told people of India to vote for you as I will go and abrogate Article 370,” he said, adding that power has been exercised for colourable considerations based on “irrelevant considerations”.
Advocate Dave contended that there is no power to abrogate Article 370 under Article 370(3). He repeatedly argued that the procedure adhered by the Narendra Modi government to nullify Article 370 amounted to “fraud” and termed the exercise of power by Parliament as “colourable”.
A Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has been hearing a batch of pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution from August 2.
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