SC to hear application seeking J&K statehood on August 8, 2025.
The application is part of bigger writ petition against Abrogation of Article 370.
The lawyers highlighted the urgency of the case to the bench given J&K Legislative elections had been held in three phases.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear an application seeking restoration of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir on August 8, 2025. The apex court said it would hear the pleas in a time-bound manner.
The matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice of India BR Gavai by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan. The senior lawyer sought a direction that the pleas which were listed for August 8 or not be deleted from the list of cases. The CJI agreed.
This application is part of the larger writ petition titled “In re: Article 370 of the Constitution” which was decided by the Supreme Court in December 2023. The SC had then upheld the abrogation of Article 370.
At that time, the top court had ordered that "Restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible". Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had given a statement in court that the J&K statehood would be restored (though he had sought time for the carving out of the Union Territory of Ladakh).
It was in view of the Mehta’s statement that the apex court did not found it necessary to determine whether the reorganisation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir was permissible under Article 3.
The application cites the SC’s direction and says, "even after passing of 10 months of the order dated 11.12.2023, till date the status of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been restored which is gravely affecting the rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and also violating the idea of federalism".
The lawyers also told the bench that this issue is one of grave urgency and importance since J&K Legislative elections had been held in three phases. There are now 90 elected members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly after a period of 10 years.
"The results of the said elections are to be pronounced on 08.10.2024. It is submitted that the formation of the Legislative Assembly before the restoration of Statehood would cause serious reduction of democratically elected government in Jammu and Kashmir causing grave violation of the idea of federalism which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India....", the application filed by Filed by Zahoor Ahmad Bhat said.
Bhat is one of the Petitioners in the original petition against abrogation.
"Jammu and Kashmir being an individual state having gone through many struggles and hardships require a strong federal structure to help in developing the area and also celebrating its unique culture", the application says.
In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court of India had in 2023 upheld the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India which accorded "special status" to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Court held Article 370 to be a temporary provision enacted introduced to serve a transitional purpose considering the war conditions in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In the 476-page judgment, the Constitution Bench also upheld the validity of the decision to carve out the Union Territory of Ladakh in view of Article 3(a) read with Explanation I which permits forming a Union Territory by separation of a territory from any State.
"This Court is alive to the security concerns in the territory. Direct elections to the Legislative Assemblies which is one of the paramount features of representative democracy in India cannot be put on hold until statehood is restored", the five-judge Constitution Bench had further said.
Furthermore, the question of whether Parliament can extinguish the character of statehood by converting a State into one or more Union Territories in exercise of power under Article 3 has been left open, which in an appropriate case, the Supreme Court has said that it would construe the scope of powers under Article 3 in light of the historical context for the creation of federating units, and its impact on the principles of federalism and representative democracy.
Notably, the court had also recommended the setting up of a commission to investigate and report on the violation of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir since the 1980s.
