J&K REORGANIZATION ACT, 2019 - POLITY
News: Why
constitutional validity of J&K Reorganization Act clause went unchallenged:
Supreme Court
What's in the news?
● The
Supreme Court quizzed petitioners about the reason for not challenging the
constitutional validity of a specific provision in the Jammu and Kashmir
Reorganization Act which confers the Delimitation Commission with the power to
“carry out” the re-adjustment of constituencies in the Union Territory formed
after the abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile State.
Key takeaways:
Contradiction in the Act:
● Section 62(2) of the
J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 provides for the
readjustment of constituencies to be carried out by the Delimitation
Commission. It is in contradiction with
Section 60 of the Act which provides that only the Election Commission of
India (ECI) was empowered to conduct the delimitation exercise.
● Further,
Article 170 of the Constitution
barred delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2011 census. It had to either
happen on the basis of the 2001 census or await “the first census after the
year 2026”. But, the delimitation of the J&K constituencies happened on the
basis of 2011 Census also comes in contradiction.
J& K Reorganization Act, 2019:
● After
the Government of India repealed the special status accorded to Jammu and
Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution in 2019, the Parliament of
India passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which contained
provisions that dissolved the state and
reorganized it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and
Ladakh in the east.
● The
government has two reasons for the bifurcation of the existing state of J&K
into two Union Territories.
● The
flag and constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the Ranbir Penal Code
(RPC), cease to exist, with the Indian Penal Code (IPC) now extending to both
UTs.
● The
two union territories came into existence on 31 October 2019, which was celebrated as National Unity Day.
Ladakh and J&K:
● The
Ladakh Division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is geographically large but
sparsely populated, with difficult terrain, and there has been a long-pending
demand of the people of Ladakh to give it the status of a Union Territory.
● Kargil
and Leh districts form Ladakh, while the rest of the region constitutes the
Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
● The
prevailing internal security situation and cross border terrorism in the
existing state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Governance Structure:
● The
Union Territory of J&K will have a 114-member elected Assembly and a Chief
Minister whereas the Union territory of Ladakh will be controlled directly by
the L-G (i.e. without an Assembly).
Jammu & Kashmir Delimitation:
Constituencies Redrawal:
Delimitation
Commission has recommended seven additional constituencies such as
● 6
for Jammu
● 1
for Kashmir
● Jammu
Division will now have 43 seats compared to 37 earlier
● While
Kashmir Valley will have 47 seats compared to 46 earlier.
Lok Sabha Seats:
● Reorganization
of the Parliamentary constituencies so that 5 Lok Sabha seats constitute 18
Assembly constituencies each, taking the total number of assembly
constituencies to 90.
● Reserving 9 Assembly
seats for Scheduled Tribes, 6 in Jammu while 3 in
Kashmir.
● Doing
away with regional distinction between Jammu and Kashmir and treating it as
one. The Anantnag region in Kashmir has been combined with Rajouri and Poonch
in Jammu to carve out Anantnag-Rajouri as one Parliamentary constituency.
Kashmiri Migrants:
● The
Commission has recommended provision of
at least two members from the community of Kashmiri Migrants (Kashmiri Hindus)
in the Legislative Assembly.
● It
has also recommended that the Centre should consider giving representation in
the J&K Legislative Assembly to the displaced persons from
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, who migrated to Jammu after Partition.
Schedule Tribes:
● The
Commission has reserved nine Assembly seats for Scheduled Tribes.
● Six
of these are in the redrawn Anantnag parliamentary seat, including in Poonch
and Rajouri, which has the highest ST population.