NEW DELHI: Terming restoration of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir as important, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to spell out the roadmap and timeframe for restoring its statehood and holding elections there.
“When are you going to have elections? Restoration of democracy is important…. We need a statement from the Central Government on this. Is there a timeframe? Is there a roadmap? Please tell us what’s the roadmap for this,” a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre. “I have taken instructions and the instructions are that the UT is not a permanent feature (of J&K)… but I will make a positive statement the day after tomorrow,” Mehta told the Bench. He, however, clarified that Ladakh would remain a UT.
Maintaining that the current status J&K as a UT was temporary, the Centre had on Monday told the Supreme Court that its statehood would be restored. As Mehta reiterated the Centre’s stand, the Bench on Tuesday said it was crucial for the government to clarify the roadmap and timeframe for restoration of J&K’s statehood and holding elections there.
The Bench, which also included Justice SK Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant, will resume hearing on Thursday when the Centre is expected to give a substantive response to the queries raised by the Bench.
On the 12th day of the hearing on petitions challenging the nullification of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Bench sought to know if Parliament had the powers under Article 3 to convert an existing Indian state into a UT. “Does clause (a) of Article 3 contemplate a situation where the entire territory of a state can be turned into a UT?” the CJI asked.
Maintaining that there was no restriction on Parliament’s power in this regard, Mehta gave the examples of Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh which became UTs first before becoming states.
Describing the case of J&K as a complicated one, Mehta said it’s a border state where certain parts of its territory were occupied by Pakistan and a large number of people died in terrorism faced by India in the last several decades.
“There are several considerations one of them is how to bring youth into the mainstream. What we see today is a result of the blueprint we have. There have been elections to the district development councils. There are 34,000 elected people. Democracy is going to the grassroots. There are a large number of schemes introduced. The youth which used to be employed by the interests not amenable to India terror groups, etc, are gainfully employed. There is a blueprint and I’ll show that blueprint,” Mehta submitted.
The CJI noted that the J&K Constitution was always meant to be subservient to India’s. “It’s not a document which can be equivalent (to the Indian Constitution),” Justice Chandrachud said.