India’s Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to revoke special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ruling on Monday, the court also ordered the region to hold local elections by September 30 next year. The decision is viewed by critics as another step by the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to clamp down on India’s only Muslim-majority region.
After seven decades or so of significant autonomy for the contested Jammu and Kashmir region under the Indian constitution’s Article 370, granted in 1947 after the first India-Pakistan war over the Himalayan region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the article in 2019.
Since August this year, India’s top court has been hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of that move.
On Monday, a panel of five judges unanimously ruled to uphold Modi’s decision, confirming the claim that the special status for Jammu and Kashmir had been only temporary.
“Article 370 was an interim arrangement due to war conditions in the state,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said. “Textual reading also indicates that it is a temporary provision.”
This story was originally published in aljazeera.com. Read the full story here .