Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayan said on behalf of the petitioner that in 2023, the government had assured the court that statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir and now 21 months have passed.

Hearing on the demand for restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir postponed for eight weeks in the Supreme Court

On Thursday (August 14, 2025) , while hearing the petitions seeking restoration of full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai (CJI BR Gavai) mentioned the Pahalgam terror attack and said that it cannot be ignored.

A bench of Justice CJI Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandra was hearing the case. When the petitioner requested for an early hearing, the CJI said, ' You cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam ... It is the job of the Parliament and the Executive to take decisions.' The bench said that we will have to pay attention to the ground realities while considering this matter. We cannot ignore the recent incidents.

The Center said - The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is strange
Senior advocate Gopal Shankarnarayan appeared  to represent the petitioner demanding restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was arguing on behalf of the Center. Opposing these petitions, SG Mehta said, ' We had assured to give statehood after the elections, but the situation in this part of the country is strange. I do not understand why there is so much uproar about this. Why is this issue being raised now? '

What did the petitioner say?
Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayan referred to the Supreme Court order of 2023, in which the court had upheld the government's decision to repeal Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and had talked about giving statehood. He said that the court was confident that the government would restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, but this was not done even after the elections and now 21 months have passed since that order of the court. After hearing the arguments of both the parties , the court has postponed the hearing for eight weeks. The court was hearing the petition of a school teacher Zahoor Ahmed Bhat and activist Khurshid Ahmed .

PC: ABPNews