Chief Justice's Bench To Hear Petition For Restoration Of J&K's Statehood

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran will shortly hear a petition for the restoration of statehood in Jammu and Kashmir. The petition seeks the implementation of a 2023 top court order.

On December 11, 2023, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the abrogation of Article 370, but directed the central government to restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood "at the earliest". The Centre had told the court that "statehood will be restored to Jammu and Kashmir and that its status as a Union territory is temporary".

After the central government's submission, the five-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had said the court would not examine whether turning a state into a Union Territory was permissible under Article 3 of the Constitution.

"In view of the submission made by the Solicitor General that statehood would be restored in Jammu and Kashmir, 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," it had said.

A petition now seeks restoration of statehood within two months and terms the delay a violation of India's federal structure. "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 says.

Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its statehood and special status under Article 370 in August 2019. Since then, the Centre has repeatedly assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that statehood will be restored "at an appropriate time".

Recently, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote to leaders of all political parties, including BJP and Congress, urging them to introduce a Bill in the current session of Parliament to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Abdullah said that restoration of statehood was not a favour but an essential course correction. He cautioned leaders that the precedent of downgrading a state into a Union Territory would have unsettling consequences for the country and it should be a red line that is never crossed.

"The 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," Mr Abdullah wrote.