The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it was ready for elections any time now but "cannot give an exact timeline for restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir."
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday that the Union Territory status of J&K will be temporary. "I am unable to give an exact time period for complete statehood while saying UT status is a temporary status", Mehta informed the court.
The SC, hearing a batch of petitions challenging the repeal of J&K's special status and its downgrading as a Union Territory, had sought the Centre a definite timeline for statehood and elections in the region.
Stressing that the Centre is ready to conduct elections anytime, the SG told SC that the process of updation of the voters' list in J-K is underway and will take a month or so to complete. "Till date, the updating of the voters list was going on, which is substantially over. Some part is remaining, that the Election Commission is doing", he added.
On the conduct of the elections, the State Election Commission and the Election Commission of India will take a call together, the SG told the court. He added that elections for Ladakh Hill Development Council and Leh are over while polls in Kargil to be held next month. The Panchayat, Municipality and Legislative Assembly elections are due.
The SG also informed the top court about the various steps have been taken by the Union Government to make the region stable. He added that compared to the pre-2019 situation, terrorist-induced incidents have reduced by 42.5%. Infiltration reduced by 90.20%. Law and order situations, stone pelting etc., have reduced by 92%. The Centre has taken various steps to boost investments in the area and several projects have come up, the SG told Centre.