What will it take to restore J&K’s statehood?

Statehood will empower CM

The J&K Reorganisation Act was passed in Parliament on August 6, 2019. It gave the Centre, through the Lieutenant Governor, a heightened legislative role in J&K, and put the bureaucratic apparatus in the UT under the Union Home Minister.

Both policing and public order were placed within control of the Centre. Subjects on the Concurrent List in the Constitution were taken off the plate of the legislative Assembly as well.

The Act also barred the UT’s legislature from introducing bills with any fiscal, monetary or taxation implications without the recommendation of the L-G. This is particularly limiting since virtually every policy decision requires taxation, expenditure or revenue adjustments.

So a restoration of statehood would effectively empower the elected government in J&K and vastly reduce the powers of the L-G, who, according to Section 53 of the Reorganisation Act, has the “final” say on almost every administrative and legislative decision.

“…The decision of the Lieutenant Governor in his discretion shall be final, and the validity of anything done by the Lieutenant Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion…,” Section 53 states.

Act of Parliament will be needed

The J&K Reorganisation was without precedent — no state had ever been reduced to a UT before. But granting statehood would not be without precedent.

Five UTs have previously been granted statehood by Parliament: Himachal Pradesh in 1971, Manipur and Tripura in 1972, and Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in 1987. Additionally, the state of Goa was carved out of the then UT of Goa, Daman and Diu in 1987.

For statehood to be restored to J&K, the Reorganisation Act would have to be repealed, and the Centre would have to introduce a fresh bill in Parliament, which then would have to be passed in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Article 3 of the Constitution empowers Parliament to form a new state out of the territory of any other state or UT, as well as to change the area or name of a state. But a bill to this effect can only be introduced on the recommendation of the President.

Since the President acts only on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers — led by the Prime Minister — this essentially means that it is up to the Centre to recommend the introduction of the bill for restoration of statehood.