The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition seeking full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir in two months. Advocate Gopal Shankar Narayan has filed this petition on behalf of Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and Khurshid Ahmed Malik. CJI DY Chandrachud said he would listen to it.
The petition stated that during the hearing on Article 370, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had assured that Jammu and Kashmir would soon be restored to full statehood. However, even after 10 months of the decision in this case, the central government is yet to act on it. The Supreme Court's decision to abrogate Article 370 came on August 11, 2023
This is a violation of the basic features of federalism, the petition said. It affects the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The court should therefore direct the central government to restore full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Last year, the Center had said that the move to create a UT was temporary
The Center abrogated Article 370 on 5 August 2019. 23 petitions filed against this decision were heard in the Supreme Court.
On August 29, 2023, during the hearing of petitions against the abrogation of Article 370, the Union government told the Supreme Court that the move to bifurcate the state into two separate Union Territories (Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh) was temporary. Ladakh will remain a union territory, but Jammu and Kashmir will soon be re-stated.
On this, the court said, it is willing to approve the Centre's decision to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two separate Union Territories in the national interest. The court questioned the Center as to how temporary the move to make Jammu and Kashmir a union territory was and should inform it when it would get statehood again.
Omar sworn in as CM on October 16, Congress says fight will continue till full statehood
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered oath to Omar Abdullah as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Center on October 16.
National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16. With this he became the first Chief Minister of this Union Territory. The program was held at Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Center (SKICC), Srinagar.
The Congress, which contested the assembly elections along with the National Conference, did not join the government. However, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were present in this event. Congress has supported the government from outside. The party says its fight will continue till Jammu and Kashmir gets statehood.
In September, the first assembly elections were held in the state after the abrogation of Article 370 After the abrogation of Article 370, the first assembly elections were held in the state last month. The results of the three-phase elections were declared on October 8. In which the National Conference (NC) emerged as the largest party. The party got 42 seats. NC's ally Congress won 6 seats and CPI(M) one seat.
BJP became the second largest party with 29 seats. At the same time, the PDP, which was the single largest party in the 2014 assembly elections, won only 3 seats. Party chief Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti also lost from Bijbehra seat. In the last election, the party won 28 seats.
Jahoor Bhat also filed a petition against the removal of Article 370 Petitioner Zahoor Ahmed Bhat also petitioned the Supreme Court against the abrogation of Article 370. During the hearing on 23 August 2023, Bhatt presented his arguments before the court. He was suspended two days later on October 25.
The five-judge bench hearing the case expressed concern over this and said that this may have been done with the intention of taking revenge on Zahoor. Appearing on this, the Solicitor General said that there must be some other reason behind Zahoor's suspension. There are some other problems with it as well.
The CJI then said that if there was any other reason, that was a different matter, but there was not much time gap between his appearance in court and his suspension. The Solicitor General also agreed that the timing of the suspension was not appropriate.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
