OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: India’s top court on Tuesday began considering a challenge to the 2019 imposition of direct rule in Illegal Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), a snap decision accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long internet blackout.

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

The Supreme Court in New Delhi will weigh whether the move was legal despite lacking the endorsement from parliament usually required for constitutional change.

Modi’s government defended the decision in an affidavit sent to the court on Monday, claiming that the change had brought “peace, progress and prosperity” to the restive territory.

But Kashmiri politician Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference helped bring the case, said the government rationale for its decision was irrelevant.