NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider listing for hearing a plea seeking time-bound restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the applicants, urged a three-judge bench of the apex court, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the plea needed an urgent hearing, keeping in mind the fact that the matter is very sensitive and important.
"There is an MA (Miscellaneous Application) for conferring the statehood. It was noted (in last year's judgement) that it has to be time-bound," the senior lawyer submitted to the apex court and sought for an urgent hearing into it.
Although, the CJI-led bench did not give a date for hearing the matter, but it assured Sankarnaryanan that it would hear the matter as soon as possible.
The application has been filed in the Supreme Court by a senior college teacher and activist, seeking its direction for restoration of the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir within a time bound period since assembly elections results in the Union Territory would be meaningless without the same.
The petitioners - teacher Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik - in their plea filed before the apex court said that despite the direction of this Court for restoration of the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir “at the earliest and as soon as possible”, no steps have been taken by the Union of India to provide any timeline for the implementation of such directions.
The plea further alleged that the failure to restore the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir is gravely affecting the rights of the citizens in the Valley.
Highlighting the fact that since the recently concluded assembly elections in the valley were conducted peacefully, and no disturbance or any security concerns being reported, so there would be "no security concerns" in case the top court passed a direction to restore statehood to the Valley within a time-bound period, the petitioner said.
"The formation of the Legislative Assembly before the restoration of statehood would violate the idea of federalism, which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India," the plea said.
It further said that the Valley always had a federal relationship with the Union of India. Thus, it is of utmost importance that the status of statehood is restored "so that they can enjoy an autonomy in their individual identity and also play an important part in the overall development of the Country."
The plea further said, the general elections were also held without any such incidence or violence from April 19, 2024 to May 20, 2024.
It was also submitted that Jammu and Kashmir will also soon to hold Panchayat elections, in the coming months which shall also be conducted smoothly and in peaceful circumstances. Therefore, there is no impediment of security concerns, violence or any other disturbances which would hinder or prevent the grant/restoration of the status of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir as had been assured by the Union of India in the present proceedings.
"Jammu and Kashmir is being operated as a Union territory for a period of almost five years now, which has caused many impediments and grave losses to the development of Jammu and Kashmir and has affected the democratic rights of its citizens. Despite, there being no impediment, in actualizing the directions of this Court which was supposed to be done in an expeditious manner, the Union of India has failed to take any cogent steps in this regard. Therefore, it is important that the Union of India be directed to provide a timeline for restoration of the Statehood of Jammu and Kashmir within a period of two months," the plea said.
It was also submitted that the balance of convenience was in favour of the petitioners. "We have a good case on merits and if the reliefs as claimed are not granted, grave prejudice will be caused to the Applicants along with the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir their territorial and democratic integrity and would lead to grave violation of the basic structure doctrine," the plea said.