The Indian Supreme Court on Monday upheld a move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that stripped off the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region's limited autonomy in 2019.
"We hold the exercise of presidential power to issue constitutional order abrogating Article 370 of Constitution as valid," said the Supreme Court's constitution bench, led by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud.
"Whether Jammu and Kashmir retained an element of sovereignty or internal sovereignty when it joined the Union of India. We have held 'no,'" Chandrachud said.
"All provisions of the Indian Constitution can be applied to Jammu and Kashmir," the court added.
The 2019 declaration was "a culmination of the process of integration and as such is a valid exercise of power," the Supreme Court said in its verdict.
The move was accompanied by the imposition of direct rule from New Delhi, mass arrests, a total lockdown and communication blackout that ran for months as India bolstered its armed forces in the region to contain protests.
Modi's muscular policy has been deeply controversial in Kashmir but was widely celebrated across India, with an insurgency that claimed tens of thousands of lives over decades largely quietened.
The move was challenged by Kashmir's pro-India political parties, the local Bar Association and individual litigants, culminating in Monday's verdict.
The court upheld removing the region's autonomy, but said Jammu & Kashmir should be restored to the same statehood as any other Indian state – with no separate autonomy rights – "at the earliest and as soon as possible."
It ordered state elections to take place by Sept. 30, 2024.
