THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, August 5: The Supreme Court is expected to take up on August 8 a petition urging the Centre to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The matter was mentioned on Tuesday before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who requested that the scheduled hearing date remain unchanged.
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“The date (on SC website) shows as August 8. Let it not be deleted,” he said, to which the CJI agreed.
The petition, filed last year by academician Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and socio-political activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, seeks a time-bound restoration of statehood, arguing that continued delay undermines democratic governance in the region and violates the principle of federalism—a core feature of the Constitution.
This development coincides with the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the former state.
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In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370 but directed that assembly elections be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir by September 2024 and statehood restored “at the earliest.”
