SC seeks Centre’s stand on plea for restoration of J&K statehood
text_fields
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Centre on a petition seeking the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran also noted submissions by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, who stated that “several considerations go into the decision-making process.”
The court listed the plea, filed by academician Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and socio-political activist Ahmad Malik, for hearing after eight weeks. Chief Justice Gavai remarked, “You cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam… It is for Parliament and the Executive to take a decision,” while senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Bhat, requested an early hearing.
On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court had unanimously upheld the revocation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The court had also directed that assembly elections be held in the union territory by September 2024 and that statehood be restored “at the earliest.”
Last year, a separate plea was filed in the top court seeking directions to the Centre to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood within two months.
Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Omar Abdulla recently asked MPs from J&K to move a bill in Parliament to get statehood restored to Jammu & Kashmir.
Abdullah said restoration of statehood was not a 'favour' but an 'essential course correction', and that the precedent of downgrading a state would have unsettling consequences.
Restoration of statehood was also a core issue during election campaigning, with the Congress, the National Conference, and others from the INDIA bloc putting pressure on the BJP to keep its promise.
But that issue got relegated to a lower priority when the Pahalgam terrorist attacks took place which killed 26 people.
The Supreme Court had while deciding the case on the constitutionality of the act that repealed the status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370, asked the Union government to conduct elections with a deadline of September 2024. Though the constitutional bench also asked the Centre to restore statehood within reasonable time, it did not specify a timeline.
With PTI inputs
