India's top court upholds government's move to strip Kashmir of special status

By Anadolu staff

NEW DELHI (AA) - India's top court on Monday upheld the legality of legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2019 that stripped the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region of its standing as a state, as well as its special status.

"We hold the exercise of presidential power to issue constitutional order abrogating Article 370 of Constitution as valid," said the Supreme Court's constitution bench, led by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud.

"All provisions of the Indian Constitution can be applied to Jammu and Kashmir," it added.

The top court asked the government to hold local elections by September next year.

Chandrachud said: "Whether Jammu and Kashmir retained an element of sovereignty or internal sovereignty when it joined the Union of India. We have held 'no'."

The court in September had finished hearing arguments on a slew of petitions challenging the legality of the legislation passed by Modi’s government in 2019.

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