On August 14, the Supreme Court will hear a plea that Jammu and Kashmir be given back its statehood immediately. A bench of Chief Justice of India B. R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran will leave the case, the causelist of court shows.
In the plea, submitted by academician Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and socio-political activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, it is sought that the Centre may restore statehood within two months. It claims that continued procrastination discredits the functioning of a democratically elected government in Jammu and Kashmir and goes against the concept of federalism that forms the basic structure of the Constitution.
In the petition, the Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls create a peaceful atmosphere in the region without violence, perturbations, and security issues. Thus, according to this, there are no security concerns that stand in the way of restoring statehood, as promised by the Union government in a court earlier.
The applicants emphasize that the non-restoration, in effect, diminishes the status of Jammu and Kashmir in terms of democracy since the results of the legislative assembly appeared on October 8, 2024. They also cite that even after the Supreme Court, on December 11, 2023, handed its verdict that statehood should be granted “at the earliest”, the Centre has failed to specify when it will be done.
Since the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been run as a Union Territory for almost five years. The petition argues that this status has led to serious losses in the development of the region and a bad impact on the democratic rights of citizens.
The Supreme Court in its 2023 verdict ruled unanimously, upholding the revocation of Article 370, adopted in 1949 to provide special status to J&K; however added that this was an interim provision and could be repealed by the President without the Constituent Assembly of the erstwhile state, dissolved in 1957.
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