The Election Commission of India was directed to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir by Sept 30 next year by the Supreme Court today.

"We direct that steps be taken by EC to conduct elections of J&K Assembly by September 30, 2024," said Chief Justice of India Chandrachud in its ruling.

The apex court declared its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to make changes to Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said the Supreme Court need not adjudicate on the validity of the president’s rule imposed in Jammu & Kashmir in December 2018.

“The pleading of the petitioners indicate that the principal challenge is to abrogation of Article 370 and whether such action could have been taken during the president’s rule,” CJI Chandrachud said.

He also said the SC cannot accept the petitioners’ argument that the union government cannot take actions having irreversible consequences when a proclamation issued by the president under Article 356 is in force.

CJI Chandrachud said, “The scope of powers exercised by the union government must depend on circumstances for issuing the proclamation (under Article 356 of the Constitution).”

He added that every action taken by the Union government on behalf of the state government is not open to challenge in courts.

“Opening up challenges to every decision would lead to chaos and uncertainty and in effect, would put the administration in a state of standstill,” held CJI Chandrachud.

“We have held that the state of Jammu and Kashmir did not retain any element of sovereignty or internal sovereignty when it joined the Union of India,” said CJI Chandrachud, adding that Article 1 and 370 indicate that J&K is an integral part of India.

“There is a clear absence in the Constitution of J&K of a reference to ‘sovereignty’ and in contrast, the Constitution of India emphasizes in its preamble that the people of India resolves to constitute themselves into a ‘sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic’,” CJI Chandrachud said.

He added, “The State of Jammu and Kashmir does not have internal sovereignty which is distinguishable from the powers and privileges enjoyed by other states in the country.”

On Sept 5 2023, a constitution bench, which included the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, had reserved its verdict after hearing oral arguments from both sides.

Earlier in March 2020, a five-judge constitution bench declined to accept the contentions of the petitioners to refer the issue to a larger bench of seven judges.

The five-judge constitution bench, headed by then CJI NV Ramana, reasoned that the earlier judgments rendered by the top court in the Prem Nath Kaul case and the Sampat Prakash case, dealing with the interpretation of Article 370, were not in conflict with each other.

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

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