The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on reference of the case to seven judge bench in a the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision abrogating provisions of Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The order was reserved by a five-judge Constitution bench ispresided by Justice N V Ramana and comprises Justices S K Kaul, R Subhash Reddy,B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

The submissions were made senior advocates Sanjay Parikh,Gopal Sankaranayan, Dinesh Dwivedi, Rajeev Dhawan, for the petitioners whileAttorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General represented the Centre whosaid that there is no need for such a reference.

The current hearings were limited to the aspect of referralof the case to the larger bench.

A batch of petitions had been filed in the matter includingthat of private individuals, lawyers, activists and political parties likeNational Conference, Sajjad Lone-led J&K Peoples Conference and CPI (M)leader Mohd Yousuf Tarigami.

The petition on behalf of NC was filed by Lok Sabha MPsMohammad Akbar Lone and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi. In 2015, Justice (retd)Masoodi had ruled that Article 370 was a permanent feature of the Constitution.

A plea was also filed by a group of former defence officersand bureaucrats -- professor Radha Kumar, ex-member of Home Ministry's Group ofInterlocutors for J&K (2010-11), former J&K cadre IAS officer Hindal HaidarTyabji, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak, Major Gen. (retd) Ashok Kumar Mehta,ex-Punjab-cadre IAS officer Amitabha Pande and ex-Kerala-cadre IAS officerGopal Pillai.

The Centre on 5 August had scrapped the provision of Article370 of the Constitution that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Jammuand Kashmir now stands bifurcated into two union territories i.e. J&K witha legislative assembly and Ladakh without one.