New Delhi: Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Justice Ramana, will today commence the crucial hearing on a batch of pleas related to abrogation of Article 370 provisions that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Quoting an official source, PTI reported that the bench will commence hearing to examine the constitutional validity of the scrapping of the article's provisions and the subsequent presidential orders on it.

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, on Monday referred the petitions relating to the validity of the Centre's move to revoke Article 370 to another Constitution Bench saying that it has no time due to the regular hearing in the Ayodhya land dispute case. The Constitution bench headed by Justice Ramana comprises Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, BR Gavai and Surya Kant. While referring to the batch of petitions to the Constitution bench, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in August had said the larger bench will commence hearing on the issue in the first week of October.

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Several pleas have been filed in the top court challenging the Centre's August 5 decision abrogating provisions of Article 370 and bifurcating the state into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The UTs will come into being on October 31.

The pleas have been filed by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, child rights activist Enakshi Ganguly, Executive Editor of the Kashmir Times Anuradha Bhasin, Doctor Sameer Kaul and wife of Malaysia-based NRI businessman Asifa Mubeen.

(with inputs from agencies)