New Delhi, Oct 17: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider listing a plea seeking time-bound restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for applicants, urged a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the plea needed an urgent hearing.
“There is an MA (Miscellaneous Application) for conferring statehood. It was noted (in last year’s judgment) that it has to be time-bound,” the senior lawyer said.
“I will deal with it,” the CJI said.
The fresh application was filed by Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, an academician, and Khurshid Ahmad Malik, a socio-political activist, in Jammu and Kashmir.
On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, in 2019, and ordered that assembly elections be held there by September 2024. The court had also said that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood should be restored “at the earliest”.
On Wednesday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the Prime Minister and Home Minister have already made it clear that statehood will be granted to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
“Prime Minister has said statehood will be restored during campaigning in Srinagar. “And the Home Minister has said in Parliament that Statehood will be given to J&K at an appropriate time. So where is the question? What I am happy about is that developments are taking place in the same sequence as they have been promised: first delimitation, then elections, and, finally, statehood,” he said.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the decision to transform Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory is “temporary” and the BJP-led government will restore the statehood to the region.
Launching a scathing attack on the opposition Congress, National Conference (NC), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he accused them of ‘inflicting wounds’ on the people by depriving them of their rights.
The prime minister said it is the BJP, which has ended discrimination and is providing balm on the wounds of the victims of the three families.
Addressing a massive election rally at M A M Stadium in the heart of Jammu a day before the conclusion of campaigning for the final phase of the assembly polls on October 1, Modi said the decision to transform Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory is temporary.
“BJP is the only party which will restore statehood to the region,” he reiterated.
