NEW DELHI: Amid the Supreme Court’s prodding on a timeline for restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Tuesday said he would make a positive statement on it on Thursday. The assurance came from before a Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud. He added that the Union Territory (UT) status of J&K is not permanent although Ladakh would remain a UT.
The court had said although it was conscious about converting J&K into an UT in “in lieu of national security”, that status could not be permanent. “Without putting you in a bind, you (SG) and AG (Advocate General) may seek instructions at the highest level whether there is some timeframe in view. Restoration of democracy is a very important survival component for our nation... We take your point that progress has begun,” the CJI said.
Continuing with the hearing on pleas challenging the reading down of Article 370, the bench said, “om the wide chasm between absolute autonomy as it existed on 26th January 1950 and complete integration brought about on Aug 5, 2019, it was substantially bridged by what was happening in between. So it was not a complete migration from absolute autonomy to absolute integration.
Substantial degree of integration had already taken place in the between 1950 and 2019. So what was done in 2019, was it really a logical step forward to achieve that integration?” Commencing his arguments, Advocate General R Venkataramani said there is no fundamental difference between the integration process of J&K and the constitutional integration process of the rest of the country.