New Delhi, Aug 5: The Supreme Court is likely to hear on August 8 a plea seeking directions to the Centre for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan mentioned the matter on Tuesday before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran.
“The date (on SC website) shows as August 8. Let it not be deleted,” Sankaranarayanan submitted.
The CJI accepted the request.
Tuesday marks the sixth anniversary of the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, which accorded a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the revocation of Article 370, even as it ordered that assembly elections be held in Jammu and Kashmir by September 2024 and its statehood be restored “at the earliest”.
Last year, a plea was filed in the top court seeking directions to the Centre for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir within two months.
The application was filed by Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, an academician, and Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, a socio-political activist.
“It is submitted that the delay in the restoration of statehood would cause serious reduction of democratically elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, causing a grave violation of the idea of federalism which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” the application said.
The assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls were conducted peacefully in Jammu and Kashmir without any incident of violence, disturbance or any security concerns being reported, it said.
It submitted that despite the apex court’s directions for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir “at the earliest and as soon as possible”, no steps have been taken by the Centre to provide any timeline for the implementation of such directions.
“It is submitted that Jammu and Kashmir is being operated as a Union Territory for a period of almost five years now, which has caused many impediments and grave losses to the development of Jammu and Kashmir and has affected the democratic rights of its citizens,” it contended.
Jammu and Kashmir being an individual state which has gone through many struggles and hardship requires a strong federal structure to help in developing the area and also celebrating its unique culture, the application stated.
In its December 2023 verdict, the apex court held that Article 370, which was incorporated in the Indian Constitution in 1949 to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was a temporary provision. The President of India was empowered to revoke the measure in the absence of the Constituent Assembly of the erstwhile state whose term expired in 1957, the court said.
Restoration of J&K statehood not a concession: Omar
Srinagar, Aug 5 : Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday wrote to the presidents of over 40 political parties seeking their support for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it “must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction”.
According to officials, Abdullah, in his two-page letter, called for bringing a legislation for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir during the current Parliament session.
The chief minister’s appeal comes nine months after his government’s unanimous resolution calling for immediate statehood restoration, which, he says, was personally handed to the Prime Minister with an assurance of progress.
It also comes on the sixth anniversary of the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories — Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
“Restoration must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction — one that prevents us from sliding down a dangerous and slippery slope where the statehood of our constituent states is no longer regarded as a foundational and sacred constitutional right but reduced instead to a discretionary favour bestowed at the will of the central government,” the letter said.
