Demanding immediate restoration of statehood to J&K and elections to the assembly, Congress on Monday said it differed with the Supreme Court verdict. The party clarified that it never asked for restoration of Article 370, as was underlined by the CWC resolution passed after the decision, even as it emphasised that the court verdict had ended the debate on the issue of nullification.It also accused BJP of running J&K through “remote control” and a “selected government”.
Singhvi criticised the SC’s refusal to adjudicate on the dismemberment of J&K into two UTs, arguing that Article 3 lays down that a part of a state can be converted into a UT but a part of the original state has to be a state. He said in the case of J&K, two UTs were created out of the state, which was illegal. He questioned how the SC could announce a future date of election for what will be a state, without deciding it be a state. Calling it a contradiction, he said SC refused to decide on the legality of J&K being made a UT, but upheld the creation of Ladakh as a UT.
Dubbing the judgment “disturbing”, CPM said the verdict would have “serious consequences” for the federal structure of the Constitution. “This verdict opens a Pandora’s box permitting the central government to unilaterally initiate the formation of new states, alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states. This may well lead to serious undermining of federalism and the rights of elected state legislatures,” the party said. It added that by comparing J&K to any other state, the court had deprived J&K of even the special features granted to the north-eastern states under various clauses of Article 371.