Image Source: Agencies

Aug 6, 2025: The Supreme Court is likely to hear on August 8 a plea seeking directions to the Centre for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
On Tuesday, senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan spoke about the matter in front of a bench composed of Justice K Vinod Chandran and Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai. “The date appears to be August 8 on the SC website. “Please do not delete it,” Sankaranarayanan pleaded. The CJI accepted the request.
Tuesday marks the sixth anniversary of the 2019 repeal of Article 370, which gave the former state of Jammu and Kashmir special status. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the revocation of Article 370 on December 11, 2023, requiring assembly elections to be held in Jammu and Kashmir by September 2024 and the restoration of its statehood "at the earliest." A request was made to the top court last year to direct the Centre to restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood within two months. Academic Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and sociopolitical activist Khurshaid Ahmad Malik submitted the application. “It is submitted that the delay in the restoration of statehood would cause serious reduction of democratically elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, causing a grave violation of the idea of federalism which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” the application said.
According to the report, there were no reports of violence, disturbances, or security concerns during the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the plea, "there is therefore no impediment of security concerns, violence, or any other disturbances which would hinder or prevent the grant/restoration of the status of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir as had been assured by the Union of India in the present proceedings." “The non-restoration of the status of statehood of Jammu & Kashmir will result in Jammu & Kashmir being given a lesser form of elected democratic government, especially in light of the results of the legislative assembly being declared on October 8, 2024,” the statement read. It submitted that despite the apex court’s directions for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir “at the earliest and as soon as possible”, no steps have been taken by the Centre to provide any timeline for the implementation of such directions.
“It is submitted that Jammu and Kashmir is being operated as a Union Territory for a period of almost five years now, which has caused many impediments and grave losses to the development of Jammu and Kashmir and has affected the democratic rights of its citizens,” it contended.
According to the application, Jammu and Kashmir, a distinct state that has endured numerous difficulties, necessitates a robust federal structure to assist in the region's development and celebration of its distinctive culture. In its December 2023 verdict, the apex court held that Article 370, which was incorporated in the Indian Constitution in 1949 to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was a temporary provision. According to the court, the measure could be revoked by the President of India in the absence of the former state's Constituent Assembly, whose term ended in 1957.