NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court concluded on Tuesday its hearing on challenges to New Delhi’s 2019 imposition of direct rule in held Kashmir, a decision that led to protests and mass arrests.

Prime Minister Naren­dra Modi’s government suspended Article 370 of the Constitution that guarantees limited autonomy to the disputed region, home to a long-running insurgency against Indian rule.

The five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, will now retire to consider if the move was legal despite lacking the endorsement from parliament usually required for constitutional change. No timeline has been given for their decision.

The Supreme Court in New Delhi heard arguments over 16 days from government lawyers, constitutional experts representing held Kashmir’s pro-India political parties, and others challenging the move.

The suspension of held Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status allowed Indians from elsewhere to buy land and claim government jobs there, a policy denounced by critics as “settler colonialism”.

Many residents and critics say that authorities have since curbed media freedoms and public protests in a drastic curtailment of civil liberties.

Modi’s government has defended the decision in the court, saying the change had brought “pea­ce, progress and pros­p­erity” to the territory.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2023