New Delhi, India

The Indian government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 29) that the union territory status of Jammu and Kashmir is not a "permanent thing". It also said that the government will make an elaborate and "positive" statement on the restoration of statehood to J&K. 

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The Centre's response was conveyed to India's top court by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, after a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. 

SC heard pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and also asked the government to set a specific time frame for the restoration of electoral democracy in the erstwhile state. 

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Mehta said, "The union territory status of Jammu and Kashmir is not a permanent thing. So far as Ladakh is concerned, its UT status is going to remain for some time." 

He also said that the statement on the future of the union territory status of J-K and Ladakh will be presented before the bench on August 31. 

The court also noted that lack of electoral democracy cannot be allowed to go on indefinitely. "This has to come to an end... Give us a specific time frame as to when will you restore actual democracy. We want to record this," the bench said. 

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Earlier, Mehta told the Court that the Pulwama terrorist attack, which killed 40 CRPF jawans in 2019, was one of the reasons behind the scrapping of Article 35A and reintegrating Jammu and Kashmir fully into the Indian Union. 

He said that citizens have been misguided that the special provisions for Jammu and Kashmir were "not discrimination but a privilege" and also said that "even today two political parties are before this court defending Article 370 and 35A." 

He did not mention names of any political parties, but it can be seen as a response to the National Conference and People's Democratic Party's allegation that stated that the Centre's move resulted in Kashmir losing autonomy and "internal sovereignty". 

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He told the top court, "It is being said that as if we did something surreptitiously as if we had some sinister plan! a lot of things happened. Pulwama happened in early 2019. and it was done thinking a lot of things in mind such as as sovereignty, national security issues etc in mind." 

He said, "Two prominent political parties have challenged the decision on the ground that the Kashmiris lost autonomy and internal sovereignty. The truth is that residents of J&K had not enjoyed in full measure the fundamental rights to life, property, settlement and employment under an artificially created distinction between 'permanent residents' and others to deprive the latter of basic rights." 

(With inputs from agencies)

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