Kashmir has always been a part of India: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India on Friday minced no words in making it clear that Kashmir has always been an integral part of India irrespective of whether Article 370 of the Constitution was in existence or repealed [Haji Abdul Ghani Khan and Anr. v. Union of India and ors.].The assertion came from Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul while hearing a plea challenging the notifications for the delimitation of assembly constituencies in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).Besides assailing the delimitation exercise in the J&K by the Union Government, the petitioners before the Court, two Srinagar residents, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr. Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, had also raised a challenge against the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution. During the hearing today, the bench which also comprised Justice MM Sundresh questioned petitioner's counsel Senior Advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala on whether the petitioner is challenging removal of Article 370 of the Constitution or not."No. After August 5, 2019, Kashmir became part of India," Jandhyala replied."No, use (words) properly, it was always a part of India. Just a special provision was removed," Justice Kaul responded. .The Court then made it clear that it will not go into the Article 370 challenge since the same is already pending before the top court. "Are you challenging (abrogation of) Article 370? You say no? What are you challenging. I don't want to get into the merits and demerits of sub-judice matters," Justice Kaul said..When the Senior Advocate replied in the negative, the Bench ordered that the contentions and pleadings regarding the challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 be ignored."The counsel for petitioner is not challenging the Article 370 of the Constitution and the pleadings therein about Article 370 is to be ignored," the top court ordered.It then proceeded to seeks response from Central government on delimitation aspect. Read more about the hearing here. .[Read our live-coverage of the hearing here]