Ready for Jammu and Kashmir elections anytime: Centre tells SC
The Centre is prepared to conduct the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir at any moment, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Thursday. Representing the Centre before the SC, Mehta added that conducting the polls now depended on the Election Commission (ECI) and the state election committee. Notably, the SC is hearing petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370.
Why does this story matter?
J&K's residents have been calling on the Union government to hold elections ever since its legislative assembly was disbanded and the erstwhile state was turned into a union territory, bringing it directly under New Delhi's governance. After the government missed multiple deadlines to hold elections, recent reports claimed J&K polls were likely to be conducted along with next year's Lok Sabha elections.
Definitive answer after high-level meeting: SG
Earlier, in response to the SC's query to the Centre regarding the timeframe and roadmap for restoring J&K's statehood, Mehta said a definitive answer could be furnished only after the high-level meeting scheduled on Thursday. Mehta said J&K's status as a union territory is temporary and its statehood will be restored eventually, adding that it must remain as a union territory "for some time."
J&K currently administered by L-G
Currently, the union territory of J&K is administered by a lieutenant governor chosen by the Centre, in contrast with the erstwhile state, where citizens elected their representatives to the Assembly. In 2019, the Centre scrapped Article 370, revoking its special status, and enforced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, splitting the erstwhile state into the union territories of J&K and Ladakh.
J&K Assembly was dissolved overnight
To recall, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed a coalition government in J&K with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 but later withdrew support in mid-2018. The erstwhile state's then-Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the assembly overnight in November 2018, claiming that he never received any formal communication from rival political parties to form a government as his fax machine wasn't working.
