The highest court in India announces end of special status for Kashmir

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's 2019 decision to remove Jammu and Kashmir's special status and set a deadline of September 30 for state elections was maintained by the Indian Supreme Court on Monday. Since gaining independence from British colonial control in 1947, Jammu and Kashmir and neighboring Pakistan have been embroiled in a struggle spanning over 75 years.

In response to over a dozen petitions contesting the revocation and the decision that followed to divide the area into two federally managed areas, a panel of five judges unanimously issued their ruling. It prepares the ground for elections in the area, which became further integrated with India following the government's controversial decision, which was made in fulfillment of a major, long-standing pledge made by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The administration is cheered up by the ruling, which comes just before the May general elections.

The challengers disputed whether parliament had the authority to abolish the special status of the picturesque mountain area, arguing that only the Jammu and Kashmir constituent assembly could make such a decision. The court ruled that special status was a provision of the constitution that was only transitory and that parliament might cancel. In addition, it mandated that the federal territory become a state again as soon as possible. The land is split between China, which occupies a sparsely inhabited high-altitude region in the north, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west, and India, which governs the populated Kashmir Valley and the region of Jammu.