J&K parties oppose provision to empower L-G to nominate members to Assembly

Party’s chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said, “I have no problem with representation to under-represented communities. That was also the logic behind having an Upper House, which was scrapped under the J&K Reorganisation Act. The party’s opposition is to the proposal of the L-G nominating individuals.”

“This should be the prerogative of the elected government and not an unelected representative of Delhi. The fact that the L-G is being authorised to nominate any person is another admission that the BJP is convinced it will lose the next election in J&K and is using the nomination route to try to get a handful of members in the House,” said the NC leader.

He said two or three seats “will make no difference to the future of the BJP”, but the entire process (of J&K’s reorganisation) is currently under judicial scrutiny in the highest court of the country and therefore, “it raises concerns about how the government can proceed with a decision while its parent Act is still being debated in the Supreme Court”.

Such decisions, Sadiq said, go against constitutional propriety as they preempt the SC decision. “Ideally such a decision should have been left to a democratically elected government,” he said.

While acknowledging the importance of providing representation to underrepresented sections of society in the legislature, Sajad Lone-led People’s Conference said the nomination process should be carried out on the advice of the Council of Ministers to ensure fair representation and uphold democratic values in J&K.

“In Parliamentary democracy, it is fundamental that the President, Governor or the L-G acts on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. This principle extends to the nomination of members to the Lok Sabha or any state legislature,” People’s Conference spokesperson Adnan Mir said.

He said the Central government’s proposed Bill appears to “equip the L-G with the sole authority to nominate members to the Legislature of J&K, bypassing the Constitutional requirement of seeking advice”. “This nomination process could potentially have an unfair impact on the public mandate and undermine the democratic principles and people’s choice,” said Mir.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) also said the Bill has been brought at a time when reorganisation of J&K is being challenged in the Supreme Court. “They should respect the SC,” PDP’s chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said.

Bukhari pointed out that there were nominated members earlier too, but that was done by elected members and not in this manner.

“With regard to empowerment of Kashmiri Pandits, look at the state of the Pandits in the last few years under direct rule of the Centre. They can tell it better than us. Their (Centre’s) focus is on creating faultlines and dividing people. And all this is done to secure political points,” said the PDP leader.

Reiterating the party’s position that the J&K Reorganisation Act is “illegal and unconstitutional”, Bukhari said until this is decided by the court, they should keep away from it. “This is part of the disempowerment project by the government and our position is clear, they should show respect for the SC.”

What the new Bill proposes

After the recent delimitation process, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of J&K has gone up from 107 to 114, with nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The new Bill proposes an amendment to Section 14 of the existing Act and insertion of two new sections — Sections 15 A and 15 B. While the amendment to Section 14 will substitute ‘107 seats’ in the Act to ‘114 seats’, Sections 15 A and 15 B detail the three reserved seats.