The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hearing an application seeking direction for restoration of the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir within two months.
Upon a mentioning by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan for an urgent listing of the application seeking the restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a bench also compromising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra ,said that it will list the case.
The plea has been moved by a senior college lecturer Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and activist Khursheed Ahmad Malik stating that despite its direction for the restoration of statehood of Hill State “at the earliest and as soon as possible”, no steps have been taken by the Central government to give any timeline for their implementation.
Application by the senior lecturer Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and the activist Khursheed Ahmad Malik has said that not restoring the statehood was gravely affecting the rights of the citizens in the Valley. They pointed out that the recently concluded assembly elections in the valley were conducted peacefully, without disturbance or any security concerns being reported, thus there would be “no security concerns” in case direction are issued to restore statehood within a time-bound period.
Pointing out that the Valley always had a federal relationship with the Union of India, the petitioners have said that it is of utmost importance that the status of statehood is restored “so that they can enjoy an autonomy in their individual identity and also play an important part in the overall development of the Country.” The petitioners have also said that J&K will also soon hold panchayat elections in the coming months which shall also be conducted smoothly and peacefully.
Therefore, the application says, there is no impediment, including security concerns, violence or any other disturbances, which would hinder or come in the way of the granting/restoring the Statehood to J&K as had been assured by the Union of India in the proceedings which saw the top court upholding the abrogation of Article 370 of the constitution that granted special status to the hill state.
The apex court on December 11, 2023, had unanimously uphold the scrapping of the Article 370 of the constitution that accorded a special status to erstwhile State of Jammu Kashmir, and stated that it was a temporary provision and the extension of the constitution of India in its entirety to the bifurcated Union Territory renders it “inoperative and redundant”.
While upholding the scrapping of the Article 370 of the Constitution, a five-judge constitution bench on December 11, 2023, did not dwell into the question whether the reorganisation of the State and it’s bifurcating it into two Union Territories is permissible under Article 3 of the constitution, as it referred to a statement made by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the course of the argument of the case that Statehood would be restored to J&K.
Having recorded the statement by the Solicitor General Mehta, the top court had directed the Central government that the statehood be restored “at the earliest as soon as possible”.
It said this while answering eight questions that it had framed to address all the issues that were raised and argued by the petitioners challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the State in two UTs before the constitution bench in the course of the hearing that had lasted for over 16 days.