India’s Supreme Court has upheld a 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, where an insurgency has raged for decades.
Key points:
- The court upheld removing the region’s autonomy, but said it should return to being a state at the earliest opportunity
- The unanimous order by a panel of five judges came in response to more than a dozen petitions challenging the revocation
- Prime Minister Modi welcomed the court’s “historic” decision, calling it a “beacon of hope”
The country’s top court also ordered state elections to be held in India’s only Muslim-majority region by September 2024.
Jammu and Kashmir have been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighbouring Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 following independence from colonial rule by Britain.
The region was given special status in India’s constitution in 1949, which granted it several privileges and restricted New Delhi’s legislative powers over Jammu and Kashmir.
The 2019 declaration was “a culmination of the process of integration and as such is a valid exercise of power”, the Supreme Court said in its verdict.
The move was accompanied by the imposition of direct rule from New Delhi, mass arrests, a total lockdown and communication blackout that ran for months as India bolstered its armed forces in the region to contain protests.
The unanimous order by a panel of five judges came in response to more than a dozen petitions challenging the revocation and a subsequent decision to split the region into two federally administered territories.
It sets the stage for elections in the region, which was more closely integrated with India after the government’s contentious move, taken in line with a key longstanding promise of Mr Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The decision is a shot in the arm for the government ahead of general elections due by May.
Mr Modi welcomed what he called the “historic” Supreme Court decision, posting on X, formerly Twitter, that the ruling was “a beacon of hope, a promise of a brighter future and a testament to our collective resolve to build a stronger, more united India”.
Mr Modi’s policy has been deeply controversial in Kashmir but was widely celebrated across India, with the insurgency that claimed tens of thousands of lives over decades largely quietened.
The challengers maintained that only the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir could decide on the special status of the scenic mountain region, and contested whether parliament had the power to revoke it.
The court said special status was a temporary constitutional provision that could be revoked by parliament.
It also ordered that the federal territory should return to being a state at the earliest opportunity.
Jammu and Kashmir is part of a wider territory divided by three countries.
India rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region of Jammu, Pakistan controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.
Reuters/AFP/ABC