The Union government told the Supreme Court that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir may hold assembly elections as soon as the Election Commission made a decision, but it was unable to provide a specific timeline for the UT's return to statehood.
Responding to the court’s query on the roadmap for restoration of statehood and conducting assembly elections, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said, “The Union government is ready for (conducting) elections at any time now. Till date, updating of voters list was going on, which is substantially over. Only some part of the work remains to be completed, which the EC is doing.
“It (holding of elections) will be a call taken by the UT, the government and ECs together after assessing the ground situation and readiness of the UT administration for holding assembly elections.”
The SG further told a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant, “So far as statehood is concerned, the Union government’s firm stand is that J&K’s UT status is a temporary phenomenon. We are dealing with an extremely extraordinary situation.”
Mehta said, “The UT will have to be infused with several things before being bestowed with statehood again. Those actions have already been initiated.” He said elections to Leh Hill Development Council had been completed and those for Kargil were scheduled for September 12. After these, elections to panchayats would take place followed by polls for municipalities. Finally, assembly polls would take place based on the dates fixed by the ECs, he said.