New Delhi (TIP)- The Centre on Thursday, August 31, told the Supreme Court that it’s ready for elections in Jammu and Kashmir anytime and now it’s for the Election Commission to take a call.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, told a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud that the Centre couldn’t give an exact timeframe for restoration of statehood.
“We are dealing with an extremely extraordinary situation. The Central Government is ready for elections anytime now. To date, updating of the voters’ list was going on… which is substantially over. Some part is remaining, which the EC is doing,” Mehta told the Bench. He said three types of elections were due. “For the first time, the three-tier panchayati raj system has been introduced. First, elections will be held for panchayats. Then there will be municipality elections and then Assembly elections,” said Mehta. He said it was for the EC and the Election Commission of J&K to take a call on which election to be conducted first and how.
Later, during the hearing, the CJI said, “The existence of a state is a very vital element of federalism.” Terming the restoration of democracy in J&K as important, the Supreme Court had on Tuesday asked the Centre to spell out the roadmap and timeframe for restoring its statehood and holding elections.
On the 13th day of hearing on petitions challenging nullification of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two union territories (J&K and Ladakh), the Solicitor General gave details of the improvements made since August 5-6, 2019, when the special status of the erstwhile state was scrapped.
Source: TNS