The Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, which is currently on its first visit to Jammu and Kashmir, has made it clear that the twenty-four seats reserved for the Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) would continue to remain vacant in the Union Territory’s legislative Assembly.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of August 2019, which has withdrawn the erstwhile State’s special status and bifurcated it into the two UTs of J&K and Ladakh, provides for continuation of 24 vacant seats in the J&K UT’s Assembly. After J&K’s reorganisation in 2019, BJP’s local unit has raised the demand of representation to the efugees from PoK who have settled in Jammu in and after 1947.
After extension of the land and job rights to the domiciles of over 15 years, BJP’s J&K leaders have been demanding defreezing of 35 percent of the 24 PoK seats which, according to them, should be made reserved for the PoK refugees. The BJP delegation would be pressing this demand before the Delimitation Commission in Jammu on Thursday and Friday.
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Senior BJP leader Kavinder Gupta, who has functioned as Speaker of Assembly and Deputy Chief Minister in the erstwhile State, has said early this week that his party’s delegation would seek defreezing of 35 percent of the PoK seats and their reservation for the PoK refugees.
However, the Delimitation Commission has made its stand clear in reply to an application filed by a PoK refugee under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“Twenty four seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall remain vacant and shall not be taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the Assembly. The said area and seats shall be excluded in delimiting the territorial constituencies as provided under Part V of the (J&K Reorganisation) Act,” the Delimitation Commission has said. In view of this, it said, the request for de-freezing one-third of 24 seats reserved in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for PoK for the displaced persons settled in India could not be acceded to.
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The Commission has been mandated to delimit the constituencies of the J&K UT in accordance with the provisions of Part V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, and Delimitation Act, 2002.
The Commission’s rejection of the demand for de-freezing one-third of seats reserved for PoK assumes significance in view of the demand from the BJP. Now it has become clear that the Commission would leave the PoK territories and the reservation of 24 seats in the J&K Assembly intact and the PoK refugees would exercise their right to vote in the normal J&K constituencies where they have lived for more than 15 years.
After creation of Ladakh as a separate UT in 2019, the J&K Reorganisation Act has provided for the strength of 114 seats in the J&K UT Legislative Assembly. With the addition of 7 new seats, the number of functional seats in the Assembly would rise from 83 to 90. In addition to that, 24 seats would continue to remain reserved for the PoK. These would be filled up by election as and when the occupied territories become part of Jammu and Kashmir under the sovereignty and administration of the Union of India.
In the erstwhile State’s Assembly, 46 seats were in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh. Besides, the Governor had the power of two nominations on the recommendation of the elected government/Chief Minister. Previously, J&K State had a bicameral legislature. Under the J&K Reorganisation Act, the 36-member Legislative Council has been completely abolished and the Assembly’s term has been reduced from 6 to 5 years. The first elections of the UT’s Assembly would be conducted by the Election Commission of India after completion of the current delimitation process.
The new Parliamentary legislation has also fixed the total number of the UT’s ministers at 9, including the Chief Minister. Previously in the State, there used to be 20 to 40 ministers. In 2005, then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had fixed the total size of the Council of Ministers at 25, including the CM.
Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies was last carried out by the Commission of Justice (retd) KK Gupta in 1994-95 during the President’s Rule when seats of the erstwhile State Assembly were raised from 76 to 87. Previously, retired Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Mian Jalaluddin, headed the Delimitation Commission in 1980-81.
In 2002, Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference government passed a legislation to freeze delimitation in J&K till 2026 in conformity with the decision of the Union Government then headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Current delimitation was necessitated due to the changes made in August 2019 by way of the J&K Reorganisation Act.
Previously 7 seats were reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Chhamb, Domana, RS Pura, Samba, Hiranagar, Chenani and Ramban, all in Jammu region, while the Scheduled Tribes had no reservation. Now, for the first time, STs would be getting some reserved seats and the seats reserved for SCs would be rotated. Even as the seats reserved for SCs had to be rotated after every two terms, four elections were held without any rotation.
During its two-day visit in Kashmir, which concluded on Thursday, delegations of all the mainstream political parties, with the glaring exception of Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), met with the Delimitation Commission with different presentations and memoranda of understanding.
