EXCLUSIVE: First face-off between Omar govt, LG: CM writes to Centre on transfers of officials

Additionally, the source said that since the transfers pertain to several revenue officials of the Union Territory, they also fall foul of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, which says such transfers need to be approved by the Council of Ministers too.

This comes just ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Srinagar on April 6 and 7.

Criticising the transfers, the Congress that is part of the ruling coalition in J&K said LG Sinha should have awaited the approval of business rules before announcing his decision. The NC government has been waiting for a nod from the Union Home Ministry for the business rules it framed about a month ago and sent to the LG for approval, to facilitate smooth governance without confusion.

“Taking such a step was not advisable… It has sent the wrong message that everything is not well (within the administration),” Ghulam Ahmed Mir, the CLP leader and Congress national general secretary, said.

This is the second time mass transfers have taken place since J&K got its first elected government post the scrapping of its special status – this was two months after Omar took over in October 2024. Despite Omar’s directive to the Chief Secretary then to halt the transfers of 20 JKAS officials, and ensure that no official was moved from their current posting, the transfers had taken effect.

By writing to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs this time, Omar has escalated matters.

The transferred officials comprise middle- and lower-rung JKAS personnel, including 14 additional deputy commissioners and 26 sub-divisional magistrates of the UT administration.

As per the demarcation of powers and authority between the Raj Bhawan and the J&K government, matters of law and order as well as Central services fall under the purview of the Lieutenant Governor, while issues pertaining to governance are under the elected government’s domain of authority.

While the business rules are yet to be framed, as per a source, on the transfers of the officials, there is no ambiguity. “Even without the new Transaction of Business Rules, the LG could not have done this.”

A senior government official said that the only situation under which revenue officials are transferred is in “an emergency”, to deploy them for management of law and order. However, “no such situation prevails at the moment”, the source pointed out.

Soon after news broke of the latest transfers, the NC announced a meeting of its MLAs, as well as legislators of alliance partner Congress, at Omar’s Gupkar residence. Sources said the transfers would be a topic of discussion at the meeting, and that the ruling partners would chart their further course of action.

“It would have been advisable for the LG to wait a while as the business rules are pending approval. The LG should have been more patient,” Mir said.

The move is expected to sharpen the criticism against the Omar government by other mainstream J&K parties of going out of its way to avoid picking fights with the LG’s office, given the complex arrangement between them. The CM has argued that this is in the best interest of the state and to ensure that his government is able to execute its agenda.

The Union government has also failed to act on its promise of restoring statehood to J&K, considered the easiest to meet. The J&K Assembly has passed resolutions in this regard.

In an interview to The Indian Express in March, LG Sinha had said he had no problems working with an elected government and emphasised that he was “not interfering” with its functioning since their domains were “clearly demarcated” in the Reorganisation Act.