SC Upholds End of Article 370, Skirts Statehood Question; BJP's Mohan Yadav is New MP CM; Alleged RAW Op to Discredit Critics Overseas Exposed

India’s stock markets seventh-biggest after BJP state victories, land prices surge in Ayodhya, the importance of being Mallikarjun Kharge, women’s heritage walks in Old Delhi stick up for courtesans

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

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Snapshot of the day

December 11, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

The Supreme Court has upheld the Union government’s abrogation of Article 370. Its five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud said that Article 370 is a temporary provision, that Jammu and Kashmir has no internal sovereignty and that the President of India has the right to extend the constitution to any part of the country without the concurrence of a state or its legislature. It said it was not ruling on the stripping of J&K’s statehood since the government has already said it intends to restored statehood “as soon as possible”. Curiously, though it was not asked about elections at all, it said that Assembly polls should be held by September 2024. It also upheld Ladakh’s conversion into a Union territory. In a concurring judgment, Justice SK Kaul recommended a truth and reconciliation commission to probe human rights violations by state actors or otherwise in J&K. Here is a link to the full text of the judgment: https://main.sci.gov.in/pdf/LU/article_370.pdf.

Unfortunately, the apex court has skirted the central question about this attack on federalism: can a brute parliamentary majority be used to reduce a state’s