Supreme Court has ruled the removal of Article 370 as constitutionally valid. Here is the justification

A unanimous judgment has been given by the Supreme Court of India on the legality of repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The apex court held that the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019 and the Presidential Order surrounding the abrogation was actually constitutionally valid.

The Verdict and the rationale

The Supreme Court of India is of the view that Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was actually a temporary provision. The court held that the Article was actually an interim arrangement that was welcomed in those times as it better suited the conditions of the first war between India and Pakistan. The ruling annulled the claims relating to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

It has also been pronounced by the apex court that Jammu and Kashmir's Constituent Assembly was actually a temporary body. Therefore, the absence of this temporary body could not prevent the Parliament from repealing the special status of the state. There was a long-time perception that said that Article 370 would continue as there isn't a Constituent Assembly for Jammu and Kashmir, but the recent verdict of the SC proves that this is just not the case. The apex court further expressed that it can't sit in appeal over the Presidential Declaration and Order as to whether there exist certain special circumstances or not.

It was also held by the Supreme Court that Article 370 was actually a feature of asymmetric federalism. The Court held that this cannot be considered as sovereignty for the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Court stated that Jammu and Kashmir did not retain sovereignty the moment it joined India, as the proclamation of the Maharaja of Kashmir expressed that the Indian Constitution would supersede. It has also been opined by the Court that Jammu and Kashmir actually became an integral element of the country. This can be clearly inferred through the language of Article 1 and Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

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Court's Opinion on Statehood

The Supreme Court of India chose not to dig into the question of whether the reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir, taking away the statehood of J&K, and transforming it into a Union Territory was valid or not. The Court took into account the Solicitor General's submission that statehood of J&K will be restored.

This may germ controversies. This is because the Supreme Court of India has seemingly reduced the academic limit needed for any judicial finding.

The Election Commission of India has been directed by the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, to conduct elections for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly by 30th September in the upcoming year. The government has also been directed by the CJI to restore statehood at the earliest.

It is to be noted that Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul stated that the objective of Article 370 was actually to bring Jammu and Kashmir equivalent to India. It has also been recommended by Justice Kaul that establish a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to look into the instances of violations of human rights by agents of the state and otherwise since the decade of the 1980s.

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