Article 370 case: Central government tells Supreme Court it will not touch special provisions applicable to North-East

The Central government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has no intentions to tinker with the special provisions in the Constitution applicable to the north-eastern States of the country..The submission was made by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta during the hearing of the case challenging the abrogation of Article 370.Appearing for the Central government, SG Mehta justified the move to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which took away the special status earlier conferred on Jammu and Kashmir, by reiterating that Article 370 was a temporary provision.."We must understand the difference between a temporary provision such as Article 370 and special provisions which is applicable to the North East. The Central government has no intention to touch the special provisions. This will have serious repercussions. There is no apprehension and there is no need to create apprehension," Mehta submitted. .Mehta made the submission in response to arguments by advocate Manish Tiwari, who appeared for an applicant in an Interlocutory Application (IA). Tiwari had hinted that he would be addressing the Court on the implications of the move on the prospects of States in the north-east before Mehta interjected to assure that there are not plans to interfere with special status conferred on north-eastern States.Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who was heading the Constitution bench that is hearing the Article 370 case, added,"Why should we go into apprehensions at all..? When Centre has (said it has) no such intention, why should we apprehend this at all? Apprehensions are allayed by the statement of the Central government."The Court then proceeded to dispose of IA in which Tiwari appeared in. "Solicitor General Mehta has submitted on specific instructions of the Centre that it has no intention to affect any of the special provisions... Reference of this case is to Article 370 and thus there is no commonality of interest in the IA and the case being heard. In any event, SG statement allays apprehension in this regard... This stands disposed off," the Court recorded in its order. .The hearing in the Article 370 case is presently progressing before the apex court. Click here for live updates.