A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously endorsed the Union government’s August 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir, calling the move the “culmination of the process of integration” of the erstwhile state into the Union of India.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, Bhushan R Gavai and Surya Kant, further directed the Election Commission of India to conduct polls to the J&K legislative assembly by September 30, 2024, and asked the Centre to restore statehood to the region “as soon as possible”.
In a historic decision that ends a chapter that started with the ascension of Jammu & Kashmir to India in 1947 at a time when the region’s political future was uncertain, the judges declared the abrogation to be a perfectly valid exercise of power by the President, ruling that Article 370 was always meant to be a temporary provision.
The judges were also in unison about the validity of the two constitutional orders (COs) issued in August 2019 by the President in applying all provisions of the Indian Constitution to J&K and the cession of Article 370, declaring that the President was not required to obtain the approval of the J&K constituent assembly (which was dissolved in 1957) or the J&K legislative assembly before notifying under Article 370 that “this article shall cease to be operative”.
“The declaration issued by the President in exercise of the power under Article 370(3) is a culmination of the process of integration. Thus, we do not find that the President’s exercise of power under Article 370(3) was mala fide,” held the court.
The top court chose not to give a ruling on whether the reorganisation of the state of J&K into two Union territories of Ladakh and J&K was constitutionally permissible, pointing at the Centre’s statement that statehood of J&K would be restored eventually. “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,” held the bench, directing ECI hold elections in J&K by September.
The verdict is a shot in the arm for the Union government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has in several election manifestos, including the one in 2019, promised to annul Article 370 and formalised its decision through two COs issued on August 5 and 6, 2019 after storming back to power in May that year.