Omar Abdullah’s claim on government move to curtail powers of J&K CM misleading: Union Home Ministry 

The National Conference leader has said that sensing defeat ahead of Assembly election results on October 8, the BJP government at the Centre is mulling administrative changes in the union territory

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (October 4, 2024) denied National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s allegations that there was any proposal tasking the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir to change the transaction of business rules to curtail the powers of the elected Chief Minister and assign the same to the Lieutenant Governor. 

Mr. Abdullah said in a post on X that sensing defeat ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election results on October 8, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre was mulling administrative changes in the union territory.

“The BJP has clearly accepted defeat in J&K. Why else would the Chief secretary be assigned the duty to change transaction of business rules of the government to curtail the powers of the Chief Minister / elected government and assign the same to the LG? This information has come to me from within the Secretariat. Officers would be well advised to resist any pressure to further disempower the incoming elected government,” Mr. Abdullah, Vice-President, JKNC, posted on X.

 MHA amends Rules to widen the administrative role of J&K L-G

Responding to the allegations, the MHA said Mr. Abdullah’s post was “misleading and speculative in nature.”

“There is not even an iota of truth, as there is absolutely no such proposal. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 passed by the Parliament provides for notifying the transaction of business rules, and the same was notified in the year 2020. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have wholeheartedly supported the efforts of the Government of India to bring in a democratically elected government through the historic free and fair election process in which the citizens participated enthusiastically,” the Ministry responded.

As recent as July 13, the MHA amended the Rules widening the ambit of administrative role of the  Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (L-G).

 The amendment gives the L-G a further say in matters pertaining to police, public order, All India Service (AIS) which require prior concurrence of the Finance Department and also their transfers and postings. Any proposal regarding appointment of Advocate-General, Law Officers and proposals regarding grant or refusal of prosecution sanction or filing of appeal shall be placed before the L-G first.

 Congress and J&K parties oppose expanding administrative role of L-G

As per the Rules, the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly may make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State List except “Police” and Public Order” and the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.

The Concurrent List includes education, marriages, taxes, property transfer, forests, trade unions, labour welfare, charitable organisations, trade and commerce among others, which effectively means that the Assembly as and when it is constituted will have no say in such matters.

On August 5, 2019, the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked and the former State was divided into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir has been under Central rule since June 2018. The government has assured that Statehood will be restored after Assembly elections are held.