Supreme Court Upholds Abrogation of Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir

The Supreme Court, which is pronouncing its verdict on Article 370, said Jammu and Kashmir does not hold internal sovereignty after it acceded to India.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said, "We hold it does not hold any internal sovereignty after accession to the Union of India."

Supreme Court also directed ECI to conduct elections in J&K by September 2024.

Article 370, which was abrogated on August 5, 2019, was an interim arrangement due to war conditions in the erstwhile state, Justice Chandrachud said.

The princely state had become an integral part of India and this is evident from Articles 1 and 370, the CJI said.

On 5th August 2019 in the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 issued by Parliament Article 376 of the Constitution was amended to replace any reference to the word “Constituent Assembly” in the Article 370 (3) with “Legislative Assembly”.

As President's rule was already imposed in J&K, Parliament was acting as the “Legislative Assembly” of J&K. And this essentially empowered Parliament to amend or repeal Article 370.