NEW DELHI: Reopening a controversy that has confronted lawmakers and the judiciary for decades, the Supreme Court sought on Tuesday the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government’s response on a petition seeking the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which confers special status on the state.The decision to entertain the appeal assumes significance as the court, earlier this year, had ruled that Article 370 could not be scrapped unless an event specified in Article 370 (3) took place. Article 370 (3) says, “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the constituent assembly of the state referred to in clause (2) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification.”A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice D Y Chandrachud issued notices to the Union and state governments on a petition by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha after hearing brief arguments from her counsel Anil Kumar Jha, who said Article 370 was a temporary provision that should have been scrapped in the 1950s. The petition is an appeal against a Delhi high court judgment of April 11.The HC had dismissed Jha’s PIL citing the aforementioned SC judgment. The petitioner said that, on October 26, 1947, the maharaja of J&K Hari Singh signed the ‘Instrument of Accession’ integrating the state to India, and that Article 370 gave it a special status as a temporary measure. On October 27, 1950, a resolution was passed for convening the constituent assembly for the state of J&K. Pursuant to elections, the constituent assembly was formed on November 17, 1956, and it later adopted a separate constitution for J&K. Jha said the constituent assembly was dissolved on January 26, 1957, which should have been the deadline for abrogation of Article 370.