Five petitioners write Open Letter to CJI Gavai, urge early deadline for restoration of J&K's statehood

New Delhi: Five petitioners in the Article 370 case have shot off an open letter to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai urging him to constitute a bench to hear petitions on the unconstitutionality on the removal of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, an early deadline for its restoration and ensuring that no government in future abrogate statehoods.

They said they are “concerned” that the government might cite the Pahalgam attack to again delay the restoration of statehood, which has been promised repeatedly by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament. They wanted the Chief Justice to take suo-motu cognizance of the Open Letter and constitute a bench to decide on the issue.

The petitioners - former Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir Radhakumar, former Home Secretary G K Pillai, Major General Ashok K Mehtra (retired), Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak (retired) and former Secretary Inter-State Council of India Amitabha Pande - will also be urging MPs across to take up the issue in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

“Not only is that argument (Pahalgam) not tenable, it can be argued that this is exactly the time to do so. The high turnout in the October 2024 elections with no violence, and the absolute majority the electors gave the National Conference…indicated the people had voted for an elected administration with the strength to govern according to public aspirations,” they said.

Appreciating the way Kashmiris responded to the Pahalgam attack, they said in the Open Letter that the NIA investigations have now found out that the earlier police version that Kashmiris were involved in the terror attack is "unfounded".

In an apparent reference to actions like demolishing houses of families of terrorists, they said LG Manoj Sinha administration’s “haste in unjustified punitive action” has caused a great deal of anger on the ground and this has been exacerbated by the sidelining of the elected administration and assembly from security consultations and initiatives for redress.

“The post-Pahalgam environment, which was widely conducive to the re-establishment of peace, is already being vitiated. The most effective bulwark against such vitiation is restoration of civil and political rights, including oversight institutions, that will come with statehood,” they said.

The Assembly passed a resolution and eight months have passed since Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha forwarded it to the President, they said adding, no action has been taken, despite repeated requests by the Chief Minister.

They said the government's repeated assurances on restoring statehood suggest a tacit recognition that the removal of statehood is unconstitutional.

They also objected to the Solicitor-General's contention in December 2023 that statehood would only be restored in stages.

“This is a policy that nullifies the constitutional issue that no state can be demoted to a Union Territory in its entirety. If that demotion was unconstitutional, then it follows that statehood must be restored in toto," they said while warning that all states will be at risk of similar actions being taken against them following the Solicitor General's laid out plan.

The letter said it was the first time in independent India that an existing state had been demoted to Union Territory. They had argued in the court that this contravened the Constitution and the basic structure doctrine that India is a federal democracy in which states’ rights must be respected.

The petitioners recalled that the Supreme Court had not ruled on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the Union government move because the Solicitor-General had assured it that statehood would be restored at an appropriate time.

Then Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud urged the government to restore statehood at the earliest while Justice Sanjay Khanna separately had held it unconstitutional.