CJI Gavai bats in favour of Article 370 abrogation, quotes Ambedkar's ‘one nation, one Constitution' stance

Mint

21 hours ago

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai on Saturday said Dr BR Ambedkar envisioned one Constitution for the country to keep it united and never favoured the idea of a separate constitution for a state.
CJI Gavai was speaking at the inauguration of the Constitution Preamble in Nagpur, where he said that the Supreme Court drew inspiration from Ambedkar's vision of a united India under a single Constitution while upholding the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, news agency PTI reported.
Justice Gavai was part of a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, that unanimously upheld the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370.
"When Article 370 was challenged, it came before us, and when the hearing was underway, I recalled Dr Babasaheb's words that one Constitution is suited for a country... If we want to keep the country united, we need only one Constitution," he said, while addressing the gathering in Marathi.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre decided to strip Jammu and Kashmir of special status and divide it into two Union Territories.
According to the PTI report, Justice Gavai said Dr Ambedkar had been criticised, saying the Constitution provides for too much federalism, and in times of war, the country may not remain united.
However, he had responded, saying the Constitution would suit all the challenges and keep the nation united, the CJI said.
"See the situation in the neighbouring countries, be it Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. Whenever our country faces challenges, it has remained united," Justice Gavai said.
National Conference (NC) Lok Sabha MP Aga Ruhullah said on Saturday that their party's struggle is not focused on restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir but rather on reclaiming the constitutional guarantees that were in place before the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
"My party can go to court, but I will only remind that our fight is not for statehood, our fight is for more than that. It is for those constitutional guarantees that were snatched from us in 2019," Ruhullah told reporters in Srinagar.
In response to NC chief Farooq Abdullah's comments about moving Supreme Court if the restoration of statehood is inordinately delayed, Ruhullah emphasised, "We should not forget our fight."
According to the PTI report, the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar reiterated that the party's goal is to reverse the Centre's decisions to abrogate Article 370 and reorganise the state into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
"The BJP has said in its manifesto as well as in the Parliament that statehood will be restored. The allied teams of the BJP (in J&K) also said they will fight for the statehood, but NC's fight is not for statehood," Ruhullah said.