India's top court finishes hearing arguments on Kashmir's special status

​By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – India’s top court on Tuesday finished hearing arguments on slew of petitions challenging the legality of the legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 that stripped disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, and its special status.

The Supreme Court's constitutional bench, led by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, had on Aug. 2 begun hearing the case on day-to-day basis.

Jammu and Kashmir is without an elected government since 2018 when the then chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, resigned, and the region’s governor later dissolved the assembly.

New Delhi's August 2019 move divided the Muslim-majority region into two federal territories, scrapped its separate Constitution and removed inherited protections on land and government jobs. Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir are now ruled directly by the central government.

Several individuals, groups, and political parties filed nearly 20 petitions at the apex court, calling the decision unconstitutional.

The court in New Delhi weighed whether the move was legal, and "reserved the verdict" after a marathon 16-day hearing.

"... let the court speak on behalf of the people of India because this court or any government, any administration acts for people of India. And it should not be, that acts are done, when a part of the people of India are silent, who have never been consulted and whose fate will be decided by the cabinet sitting here (New Delhi) ...," said advocate Kapil Sibal, a lawyer representing the petitioners, in his concluding remarks on Tuesday.

While the petitioners questioned the role of the parliament which abrogated the special status, the counsels representing the federal government defended its actions.

The government did not give a time frame for the restoration of Kashmir’s full statehood, but said its present status as a federal territory was "temporary," and it was ready to hold elections in the region "anytime now."

Since Partition in 1947, the Himalayan region is claimed by both India and Pakistan in full, but ruled in part.