NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday sought the Centre’s response to a petition seeking restoration of statehood to Jammu & Kashmir, but said such a decision could not be taken without considering prevailing gro-und situation and incidents like Pahalgam, where terrorists had killed 26 people in cold blood on April 22.Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Zahoor Ahmed Bhat, said that the judgment of SC’s 5-judge bench led by then CJI and comprising current CJI B R Gavani had on December 11, 2023, upheld the Centre’s decision to scrap Article 370 that gave special status to J&K and the bifurcation of the state into two UTs – J&K and Ladakh on the basis of SG Tushar Mehta’a categorical “restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible” assurance. After more than one and half years, statehood had not been restored, Sankaranarayan said.Mehta said elections to the assembly of J&K had been held, as was promised in 2023 to the apex court. “SC is aware of the peculiar situation prevailing in J&K. Several aspects have to be taken into consideration before a decision on granting statehood to J&K can be taken. This is not the time (for petitioners) to muddy the waters,” he said. The CJI Gavai-led bench agreed with the SG. “One has to take into consideration the ground realities prevailing in J&K. The Pahalgam incident cannot be ignored,” the bench said, and asked the Centre to file its response to the statehood demand in eight weeks. In the Dec 2023 judgment, the five-judge bench had recorded: “The solicitor general stated that the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir will be restored (except for the carving out of Union Territory of Ladakh). In view of the statement we do not find it necessary to determine whether the reorganisation of the State of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir is permissible under Article 3 of the Constitution.””However, we uphold the validity of the decision to carve out the Union Territory of Ladakh in view of Article 3(a) read with Explanation I which permits forming a Union Territory by separation of a territory from any state. We direct that steps shall be taken by Election Commission of India to conduct elections to the legislative assembly of Jammu & Kashmir constituted under Section 14 of the Reorganisation Act by 30 September 2024. Restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible,” the five-judge bench had said.
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