Srinagar, June 30,: Five prominent petitioners in the Article 370 case have written an open letter to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, urging him to constitute a bench to adjudicate the constitutional validity of Jammu and Kashmir’s loss of statehood and to set a concrete deadline for its restoration. They also sought legal safeguards to prevent any future government from unilaterally revoking statehood of any Indian state.
The signatories, former J&K interlocutor Radha Kumar, ex-Home Secretary G K Pillai, retired Major General Ashok K Mehta, retired Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak, and former Inter-State Council Secretary Amitabha Pande, expressed concern that the recent Pahalgam attack may be used as a pretext by the Union Government to indefinitely delay the promised restoration of statehood.
Highlighting the Centre’s repeated assurances in Parliament, particularly by Home Minister Amit Shah, they emphasized that such delays contradict the spirit of federalism and constitutional propriety. The petitioners called on the Chief Justice to take suo motu cognizance of their open letter and expedite the judicial review of the abrogation of J&K’s statehood.
The group also plans to reach out to Members of Parliament across party lines ahead of the upcoming Monsoon Session to raise the issue on the floor of the House.
They strongly countered the argument that the Pahalgam attack justifies the delay. “If anything, this is the right time for restoration,” the letter said, pointing to the peaceful conduct and high voter turnout in the October 2024 elections, which gave the National Conference an absolute majority and demonstrated a clear public mandate for elected governance.
The letter appreciated the way the local population distanced itself from the Pahalgam violence and pointed to NIA findings that the earlier police narrative blaming Kashmiris was baseless. It sharply criticized the Manoj Sinha-led administration for carrying out “unjustified punitive actions,” including house demolitions, which they said had caused widespread resentment.
The signatories warned that such actions, coupled with the exclusion of elected representatives from security and policy discussions, risk undermining the atmosphere of relative peace in the Valley. “The only sustainable path forward is through restoration of political and civil rights, which come with full statehood,” they stressed.
They also pointed out that the J&K Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution in support of statehood eight months ago, and that the Lieutenant Governor forwarded it to the President, yet no action has been taken since, despite reminders from the Chief Minister.
Further criticizing the Solicitor-General’s December 2023 statement that statehood would be restored in phases, the petitioners warned that this sets a dangerous precedent. “This approach dilutes the constitutional position that no state can be downgraded to a Union Territory. If the demotion was unconstitutional, restoration must be full and unconditional,” they argued.
They reminded that this was the first instance in India’s history where a full-fledged state was downgraded to a Union Territory, an act, they argued, that violated the basic structure of the Constitution which upholds India’s federal nature.
The petitioners also recalled that the Supreme Court, while not explicitly ruling on the constitutional validity of the action, had accepted the government’s assurance that statehood would be restored. Then Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had urged timely action, and Justice Sanjay Khanna had outrightly called the demotion unconstitutional.
The letter concludes with an urgent plea for judicial and legislative intervention to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s dignity as a full state and to safeguard the federal fabric of the Indian Constitution. [KNT]
