The Centre has offered the addition of a constitutional provision of ‘Article 371(K)’ in a bid to extend additional protections to Ladakh at a meeting between the Ladakh Sub-Committee and the Ministry of Home Affairs in the national capital on Wednesday, The Indian Express has learnt. While this marks a significant development, representatives have said there is no draft of this yet, and discussions will continue.
The meeting, which came months after the last talks, saw the sub-committee comprising members of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) — including activist Sonam Wangchuk — meet with officials of the MHA in continuation of the “in-principle understanding” arrived at in meetings held on May 22 and July 3. Those two breakthrough meetings saw discussions on restoring democracy in Ladakh, and providing constitutional safeguards by way of special provision under Article 371.
The proposed provision is learnt to be for Ladakh to establish an elected governing body and local administrative autonomy.
But talks have remained suspended since then as the representatives from Ladakh pushed for greater democratic control and quashing of cases against those arrested in the aftermath of the violence of September 24 last year.
According to those who attended the Wednesday meeting, the MHA stated that the intended UT-level governance body – a demand made by the two groups — would be elected by direct election and would have legislative powers with respect to land, culture and language, forest, environment, natural resources and any other subjects reserved for the UT under Article 240 of the Constitution of India.
Article 240 gives the President of India the power to make laws and regulations for the peace, progress, and good government of specific union territories.
Ladakh has also sought executive, budgetary, planning and financial powers for the proposed elected body. However, LAB and KDA representatives who attended the meeting pointed out a lack of clarity on “all areas, including law and order as seen in UT of Puducherry, which is necessary for proper governance”.
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Speaking after the meeting, Wangchuk said that the (proposed) assembly “should have supremacy over bureaucracy, and we have also asked for control over police and law and order”.
“About this, they have only said that they will discuss this in October,” he said, adding: “It cannot be said that the meeting was successful or unsuccessful either”.
Ladakh has also raised concerns regarding structural changes to the governance infrastructure in the UT. Wangchuk added that “if these changes continue, we will be forced to sit on agitation again.”
This is a departure from the discussions until now, which have mentioned a “sui generis, tailor-made constitutional safeguards and elected UT-level legislature” for Ladakh. But while members of the sub-committee told The Indian Express that the MHA has proposed provisions under a new provision, Article 371(K), KDA co-chairman Sajjad Kargili said that the discussion took place “without a draft and until a draft detailing what these provisions will entail is produced, it does not inspire confidence among the members of the sub-committee and the people of Ladakh”.
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The MHA is also learnt to have promised a compensation package for those who lost their lives and were injured in the September 2025 agitation. LAB and KDA sought that all cases connected to the protest be withdrawn at once, and not in phases. MHA said it was being looked into, some representatives said.
The MHA is also learnt to have assured the groups that further talks will be held in the first week of October, during which a draft Article would be discussed. The MHA is expected to seek further comments on some broader issues from LAB and KDA shortly, some representatives told The Indian Express.
The LAB and KDA unanimously stated that no major irreversible restructuring should be done in governance mechanisms, land transfers, etc. before an elected body at the Union Territory-level is in place. LAB and KDA have unanimously declared that, in the event of any irreversible changes to Ladakh’s administrative and political setup before the UT-level democratic body is constituted, they would be compelled to call a public protest.
