NEW DELHI (Kashmir English): The Indian Supreme Court will hold an important hearing on the petition to restore the statehood of occupied Kashmir on Friday, August 8.
The Modi government had abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 5, 2019, and divided it into two union territories.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan raised this issue before Chief Justice BR Gavai during the hearing of the case.
He pointed out to the court that the case had been listed for hearing on August 8 as a miscellaneous petition and therefore should not be removed from the list, to which the Chief Justice agreed.
In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Modi government’s decision to abrogate Article 370.
However, the Supreme Court did not give any decision on the constitutional status of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, under which the occupied territory was divided into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The petition has been filed by Zahoor Ahmed Butt, a professor at the college, and Khurshid Ahmed Malik, a social activist.
The petitioners maintain that the Indian government has not taken any practical steps to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir despite the assurances of the court.
The petition states that now that the assembly elections in the occupied territory have been held, the failure to restore full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir is a violation of the federal structure of the Indian Constitution.
The Supreme Court, in its December 2023 judgment, had directed the government to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible, but had not set any time frame.
This petition has been filed in this context so that pressure can be increased on the Indian government to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.
