Article 370 Hearing: Ready For Polls In J&K Anytime Now, Centre Tells SC
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it is ready for elections in Jammu and Kashmir anytime now.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it was ready for elections in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir anytime now. While the top court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, conveyed the same to the court, adding that the decision on the polls has to be taken by the Election Commission of India and the state poll panel.
Mehta told a bench that polls in Jammu and Kashmir would be held in three stages - first there will be panchayat polls, second municipal polls and then legislative assembly polls.
"The Central government is ready to hold elections anytime from now. It is for the Election Commission of India and Election Commission of State to take the call on which election will take place first and how. The updating process of the voters' list is almost complete and will be completely over in a month," he said.
"We are dealing with an extremely extraordinary situation. The exact time frame for restoration of complete statehood in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be given at the moment. It might take some time. Various steps are being taken to restore the status of the state in Jammu and Kashmir," he told the bench, as reported by PTI. He added that terror-related incidents had gone down by 45.2 per cent when compared to 2018 and infiltration was down by 90.2 per cent.
Citing more data, he said, "Incidents of stone pelting and hartals which were 1,767 in 2018 are now nil. Casualty of security personnel has gone down by 60.9 per cent, organised bandhs, which were coordinated by secessionist groups, have gone down from 52 in 2018 to nil in 2023." For restoration of statehood, he said several steps are being taken and investments of around Rs 7,000 crore have been promised out of which over Rs 2,000 crore has already been done.
He said several projects are underway and out of the 53 Pradhan Mantri Development Project, 32 have been completed.
"Peace does not merely come by policing," Mehta told the bench, which was recording the figures given by him.
Reacting to this, lawyer and petitioner Muzaffar Iqbal Khan said, "The government has been telling all this for the last 5.5 years. I have said earlier also that they will come up with this response. However, you can understand that it was not the case of elections (in J&K) before the Supreme Court at all, it was an abrogation of Article 370."
Union Territory Status Of J&K Not Permanent: Centre
On Tuesday, the five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court asked the Centre to specify a time frame for the restoration of electoral democracy in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, saying the present arrangement has to come to an end.
"The union territory status of Jammu and Kashmir is not a permanent thing. So far as Ladakh is concerned, its UT status is going to remain for some time," Mehta said.
To this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that the union territory status of Jammu and Kashmir was not a “permanent thing” and assured that the government would make an elaborate statement on August 31.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandradhud, was hearing Mehta’s submissions defending the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370 which gave the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. “Democracy is important, although we agree that in view of the national security scenario, reorganisation of the state can be done,” the bench observed, as reported by news agency PTI.
"This has to come to an end... give us the specific time frame as to when will you restore actual democracy. We want to record this,” the bench had said on Tuesday.
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