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New Delhi, October 10 (IANS) The Supreme Court will on Friday hear petitions demanding restoration of the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir in a time-bound manner.
According to the cause list published on the apex court website, Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran’s bench will resume hearing the case on October 10.
In the last hearing on August 14, the bench led by CJI Gavai had pointed to the “ground realities” and the Pahalgam terror attack as it accepted the Centre’s request to list the case after eight weeks.
“You have to keep in mind the ground reality also. You cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam,” the top court told the applicants seeking first hearing on their plea seeking restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir in a time-bound manner.
The applicants argued that the continued delay in restoring statehood is “seriously affecting the rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and also violating the idea of ​​federalism”.
He said failure to restore statehood within a time-bound framework is a violation of federalism, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said, “It has been 21 months since the verdict on Article 370. There has been no movement towards restoration of statehood.” He said the Constitution Bench had trusted the Central government when the Solicitor General had assured that statehood would be restored.
Questioning the maintainability of the applications, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, the Centre’s second-highest law officer, urged the top court to consider the “peculiar situation” in Jammu and Kashmir and demanded that the petitions be listed after eight weeks, saying it was not the “right stage” to consider the matter.
SG Mehta said, “These applications are not maintainable. We had assured two things: there will be elections, and then statehood. Your Lordships are aware of the strange situation emerging from this part of our country. There are many views.”
“I don’t know why the issue is agitated at this stage, but list it after eight weeks. I will take instructions. My prayer is for eight weeks because this particular stage is not the right stage to muddy the waters,” Mehta said.
After hearing the arguments, the bench led by CJI Gavai sought the central government’s stand on the matter and posted it for hearing after eight weeks. In the ‘Article 370 of the Constitution’ judgment, a 5-judge Constitution bench headed by then CJI DY Chandrachud had left open the question whether Parliament could abolish the character of a state by converting it into one or more union territories relying on an oral statement made by the Center that statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir.
During the oral hearing, the Centre’s law officer had said that the Union Home Ministry cannot give any exact time frame and it will take “some time” to restore statehood in Jammu and Kashmir.
–IANS
PDS/DPB