India’s highest court has agreed that the former state of Jammu and Kashmir should no longer have its special status.
In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government removed Article 370 from the Indian constitution, which had given the region a lot of freedom to make its own decisions.
The land where over 12 million people live was divided into two parts run by the government.
The court said that the government needs to have elections in the area by September 2024.
The five judges decided that the region should become a state again as soon as possible.
“The state of Jammu and Kashmir is not independent from other states,” Judge DY Chandrachud said while giving the decision.
Justice SK Kaul suggested that a fair truth and reconciliation commission be created in Kashmir to look into human rights abuses by both government and non-government groups over the last few decades.
Mr Modi promised to revoke something in 2019, and the court’s decision comes before he tries to get elected for a third time. Local leaders in the area are not happy about the decision.
Omar Abdullah, who used to be the leader of a state, wrote on X that he felt sad but not discouraged.
The pretty area of Jammu and Kashmir used to be ruled by a prince, but it became part of India in 1947 after Britain left and India was divided.
India and Pakistan, who have nuclear weapons, have fought two wars and a small fight over Kashmir. Each group has taken control of various parts of the land, and they have agreed on a line to stop fighting.
More guards have been placed in Kashmir since Monday morning to keep it safe.
“We must make sure that there is peace in the Kashmir valley at all times,” VK Birdi, the inspector general of Kashmir zone, told PTI news agency.
Security was increased and the region had no communication when the revocation happened.
On 5 August 2019, the Indian government took away most of the special rights given to the people of Jammu and Kashmir state through Article 370 of the Indian constitution.
The group that managed the state’s money, jobs, schools, and economy was disbanded. A new leader was chosen to take care of the area until people could vote for their own leader. Many people who speak out against the government were taken by the police.
Article 370 gave the state the power to have its own set of laws, its own flag, and freedom to make its own rules. The federal government was in charge of foreign relations, protecting the country, and communication.
As a result, Jammu and Kashmir could create its own rules about who can live there, who can own property, and what rights people have. It might also stop people from India who don’t live in the state from buying land or living there.
The constitutional rule has supported India’s difficult relationship with Kashmir, the only region with mostly Muslim people that became a part of India when it was divided.
MrModi and his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been against Article 370 for a long time. They promised to remove it in the 2019 election.
They said it should be removed to unite Kashmir with the rest of India. After winning by a lot in the election, the government quickly started working on its promises.
Critics say the BJP wants to change the population of the Muslim-majority area by letting non-Kashmiris to purchase land there.
In August, the Supreme Court started listening to about 23 petitions that questioned the government’s decision.
The people who signed the petition had emphasized how special Kashmir’s connection is to India. They said that Article 370 helped connect the laws of India and Jammu and Kashmir.
The state included the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, and the high altitude Buddhist area of Ladakh.
The people who signed the petition said that the government’s plan to change Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh into federally controlled territories goes against India’s constitution because it needs the state’s legislative assembly to agree before making this kind of change.
The people who signed the petition said that when Article 370 was removed, it also took away the region’s ability to make its own decisions without asking the people who live there. However, the government said that they gave up their power to India in 1947.
After the special status was removed, a lot of the rules in Kashmir were made less strict. As a result, more than 16 million tourists visited the beautiful Kashmir valley in 2022. The government is prepared to have state elections and give back the status of statehood.
However, the government often limits people’s ability to communicate in the area for safety reasons. Rights groups say this is to stop people from speaking out against the government.