Supreme Court to hear petitions on J&K’s statehood today

Srinagar, Oct 9: The Supreme Court will hear a batch of petitions tomorrow seeking the restoration of Jammu & Kashmir’s statehood.
According to the causelist released by the Apex Court’s registry, the petitions are listed before the Court of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Friday, October 10.
“The case is listed for hearing before a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India,” advocate Soayib Qureshi said.
He further said that the Union of India has not yet filed any response in the matter.
On August 14, during a hearing of the case, the Supreme Court granted eight weeks’ time to the Solicitor General of India to seek instructions from the government regarding the pleas for restoration of J&K’s statehood.
At that time, the CJI emphasized that the real situation on the ground must be considered and that incidents such as the Pahalgam attack cannot be overlooked.
“You must also take into account the ground realities; you cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam,” said the bench led by CJI.
The petitioners have argued that the continued delay in restoring statehood violates the principle of federalism, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
They have also submitted that no steps have been taken to lay out a clear timeline or implement the Supreme Court’s December 2023 directive stating that “restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible.” (KNO)