Indian SC to hear plea for restoration of IIOJK’s statehood on August 8
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India will hear on Friday, August 8, an application seeking directions to the BJP-led Indian government to restore statehood to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which has remained a Union Territory since the illegal abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the matter was briefly mentioned before Chief Justice of India BR Gavai by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who said the case is shown as listed on August 8. He requested that the matter not be deleted from the list for that day. CJI Gavai accepted the request.
The application has been filed as a Miscellaneous Application in the already disposed case titled In Re: Article 370 of the Constitution. In that judgment delivered in December 2023, a Constitution Bench of the Indian SC had upheld the abrogation of Article 370, which had granted special status to IIOJK. However, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which bifurcated the territory into two Union Territories—Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
At the time, the Solicitor General had assured the court that statehood would be restored “at the earliest,” prompting the Bench to refrain from intervening further.
The Court had then observed, “Restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible,” but did not prescribe a timeline.
The latest application has been moved by Zahoor Ahmed Butt, a college teacher, and Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, a social activist through Advocate-on-Record Ejaz Maqbool. The applicants argue that New Delhi has failed to take any steps toward restoring statehood since the judgment, despite the peaceful conduct of Assembly elections in the territory.
They contend that this prolonged delay infringes upon the basic structure of the Constitution, particularly the principle of federalism. They also assert that the situation on the ground is conducive to the restoration of full statehood.
