Article 370 Abrogation: Centre Tells Supreme Court J&K's Union Territory Status 'Not Permanent'

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre how long will it take for it to restore the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Supreme Court has sought a deadline from the Centre by which it can restore the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir. The Supreme Court's query came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Tuesday told the five-judge Constitution Bench: "I will show that it [Union Territory status of Jammu & Kashmir] is not of permanent nature and we want this to become a state again."

The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, is hearing a batch of petitions, challenging the abrogation of Article 370. The judges on the bench are Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and BR Gavai. The SC is now conducting the final hearings on a bunch of over 20 pleas that seek the restoration of Article 370.

The central government in 2019 decided to abrogate Article 370, which led to the scrapping of the special status granted to Jammu & Kashmir. The state was then bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

"How impermanent is the decision to make it into a Union Territory and when will the elections be held," the CJI was quoted as asking by legal news website Bar and Bench. Mehta told the SC that the Centre will provide an elaborate statement on the future of the Union Territory status of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh on August 31.

SG Tushar Mehta told the court that "it was the people of the state who were behind the integration of the state with the Union of India". Elaborating on the need to abrogate Article 370, Mehta said: "There were hartals [strikes] every two or three weeks; banks and schools would remain closed. When state reorganisation takes place, there is a blueprint as to how the central government will work once the states are reorganised; like how the youth will be taken into the mainstream, etc."

"Youth which used to be employed by terror groups or interests inimical to India, are employed gainfully now. It can be seen that these policy considerations that decided the reorganisation were correct. The blueprint ensured that Jammu & Kashmir returned to normalcy," he was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. Mehta further said that this was a "one-of-a-kind situation" that will not arise again.