Supreme Court to hear plea to restore statehood of Jammu and Kashmir on August 8

The application said that even after the SC ruling upholding the abrogation of Article 370, which conferred special status on J-K, no steps had been taken to restore statehood and that this violates federalism.

“The non-restoration of the status of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir in a time-bound manner violates the idea of federalism, which forms a part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” it said.

The application pointed out that the elections to the Union Territory Assembly were held peacefully, showing that there are no security concerns, violence or any other disturbances which would hinder or prevent the restoration of J-K’s statehood.

On December 11, 2023, a five-judge Constitution Bench had upheld the 2019 move by the Centre to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, as constitutionally valid.

“The Solicitor General stated that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored (except for the carving out of the Union Territory of Ladakh). In view of the statement, we do not find it necessary to determine whether the reorganisation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir is permissible under Article 3,” said the ruling.

Directing that steps shall be taken by the Election Commission of India to conduct elections to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, constituted under Section 14 of the Reorganisation Act, by 30 September 2024, the ruling also added that “restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible.”