India's Supreme Court upholds government's decision to remove disputed Kashmir?s

12/12/2023 5:44

        India’s top court on Monday upheld a 2019 decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.
        
        The five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the region’s special status had been a "temporary provision" and that removing it in 2019 was constitutionally valid.
        
        The unprecedented move also divided the region into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, both ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of their own.
        
        It was the first time in the history of India that a region’s statehood was downgraded to a federally administered territory.
        
        As a result, the Muslim-majority region is now run by unelected government officials and has lost its flag, criminal code and constitution.