The Supreme Court will on August 8 hear a plea urging the Union government to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, the Live Law reported today.
The application was mentioned today before Chief Justice of India BR Gavai by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who requested that the matter not be removed from the cause list for that day. The CJI agreed to the request.
The application has been filed as a Miscellaneous Application in the already disposed of case regarding Article 370, in which the Supreme Court had upheld the Centre’s 2019 move to abrogate the region’s special status. However, the verdict had not ruled on the constitutionality of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which downgraded the erstwhile state into a Union Territory, citing an assurance from the Solicitor General that statehood would be restored.
In its judgment, the Court had merely noted, “Restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible,” but did not fix any deadline.
The fresh application has been filed by college teacher Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik. They argue that despite the Solicitor General’s assurance during the hearings, the Union government has taken no steps towards restoring statehood even eleven months after the judgment.
They contend that the continued delay violates the principle of federalism, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The applicants also pointed out that the recent peaceful Assembly elections indicate there are no security concerns or disturbances that would justify withholding statehood.
Incidentally, today marks six years since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
