The Supreme Court of India (SC) has agreed to consider hearing a plea seeking the time-bound restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. The apex court had earlier upheld the abrogation of Article 370 and directed that assembly elections be held in the region by September 2024.
On October 17, a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, responded to a request for an urgent hearing made by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
“There is a Miscellaneous Application (MA) for restoring statehood. It was noted in the judgment that this should be time-bound,” Sankaranarayanan told the court. The CJI replied, “I will deal with it.”
Sankaranarayanan is representing Jammu and Kashmir academic Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and socio-political activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, who are petitioning for immediate directions to the Centre to restore the region’s statehood.
The plea highlights that although the Solicitor General had previously assured the court that statehood would be restored, no steps have been taken in the past 10 months. The petition warns that further delays could harm the federal structure of the country.
In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370, which had granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. During that ruling, the court emphasized that statehood for the region should be restored “at the earliest.”
