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The Supreme Court on Thursday, while hearing a petition to restore the state status of Jammu and Kashmir, sought a reply from the central government in eight weeks. Along with this, the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in April was also mentioned. The court said that incidents like recent terrorist attacks in Pahalgam cannot be ignored. “You cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam,” a bench of Chief Justice BR Gawai and Justice’s Vinod Chandran told senior advocate Gopal Shankaranarayanan appearing on behalf of the petitioners. This comment from the country’s Supreme Court came when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the central government, opposed the petition that the state status would be restored after the election, but the issue should not be raised yet in view of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Tushar Mehta said, “We have assured that state status will be restored after the election. The situation in this area is special. I will take instructions, but give 8 weeks time.” Senior advocate Shankaranarayanan said that in December 2023, the Supreme Court, in the judgment on petitions challenging Article 370, did not give any decision on the state status issue, relying on the assurance of the Center. He said, “It has been 21 months since that decision, but state status has not been restored yet.” This petition has been filed by college teacher Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and activist Khurshid Ahmed Malik. He says that the rights of citizens are being affected due to lack of state status.

Explain that in August 2019, with the removal of Article 370, the state was divided into two union territories (Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh). Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against this decision. The petitioners have demanded that the central government should return state status to Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible and restore a complete democratic structure there.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice issued a notice to the Center and said that the government’s side will be heard on this petition. The court listed the case for further hearing after eight weeks. Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday that restoring the state status of the Union Territory is a “necessary reform”, not a “concession” and the issue is beyond regional interests.