Article 370: 'Some battles are fought to be lost,' says senior advocate Kapil Sibal ahead of SC verdict

Hours before the Supreme Court was about to deliver its historic verdict on Article 370, senior advocate Kapil Sibal who was a counsel for petitioners challenging the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status posted a cryptic message on his social media account.

"Some battles are fought to be lost. For history must record the uncomfortable facts for generations to know. The right and wrong of institutional actions will be debated for years to come. History alone is the final arbiter of the moral compass of historic decisions," said Senior Advocate Sibal on the social media platform 'X.'



Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, argued that Article 370 had assumed permanence after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, and therefore, the Parliament did not have the authority to declare itself as the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of abrogating Article 370.

Supreme Court verdict:
The Supreme Court's Constitution bench on Monday upheld the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution while announcing its judgment on a series of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the division of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.

The five-judge bench also ordered the Election Commission to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30, 2024.

The court refused to rule on the validity of the Presidential rule imposed in Jammu and Kashmir in Dec 2018.

On August 5, 2019, the central government announced the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status granted under Article 370 and the division of the region into two union territories.

(with agency inputs)