Srinagar, New Delhi: The residents of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh will now be governed by all central laws, just like their counterparts elsewhere in India, with the central government’s August 5 decision to scrap Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two union territories officially coming into effect from today.
President’s Rule will be re-imposed in both the new UTs — Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh — and another order will suspend provisions of the J&K Reorganisation Bill pertaining to the separate Constitution of J&K that will cease to exist from today, ThePrint has learnt.
There will be two oath-taking ceremonies Thursday — one in Leh and another in Srinagar — where Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Gita Mittal will administer oath to the newly appointed lieutenant governors of J&K and Ladakh.
Girish Chandra Murmu will be J&K’s first Lieutenant Governor, while Radha Krishna Mathur will take oath as Ladakh’s L-G.
The chief justice has already flown to Ladakh, and would return in the afternoon for the Srinagar ceremony.
According to an officer, a total of 106 central laws will come into force in the two UTs from 31 October, and 153 state laws will be repealed.
“Now the state laws will be repealed and will be replaced by the central laws,” a senior J&K government official who did not want to be named said.
Officials, however, said the changes will not make much of a difference as most central laws, barring a few, already existed in J&K as local laws.
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What changes on ground
In what can be termed the most visible of the changes, the state symbols — the state flag and emblem — will cease to exist. J&K till now used to have a separate flag owing to the provisions of Article 370 in the Constitution of India.
Government buildings and vehicles of senior officials would have both the Tricolour and the J&K flag until now. Only the national flag will be used from now on.
On the administration side, the biggest change will be the reconfiguration of the state assembly. The newly created UT of Ladakh will have no state assembly while J&K will have a separate unicameral assembly. J&K had bicameral assembly until now — Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council.
The 36 MLC positions won’t exist in J&K or Ladakh anymore. There will also be not more than nine ministers and a chief minister in the J&K assembly.
The next elected chief minister of J&K, however, will not have authority in three key areas — law and order, transfers and appointments, and the newly created Anti-Corruption Bureau. These will be looked after by the newly made position of L-G as the governor’s post has been dissolved too.
The existing state cadre of officers from Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) and Kashmir Police Service (KPS) will remain unchanged. However, the new appointments will be made from the AGMUT cadre.
While J&K will continue to have a chief secretary and a director general of police, a decision for Ladakh is to be made later today.
The advisers to the governors are likely to be replaced with counsellors to the new L-Gs.
State government employees will be divided to work for the two UTs. They have been given a choice to work for either of the two UTs, with an overwhelming majority opting for J&K, officials said.
153 state laws will be repealed
Though the erstwhile state was exempted from central laws because of the “special category status” granted to it by Article 370, most of the central laws already existed in the state as local laws enacted by the state legislature under the J&K Constitution.
For instance, though the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 was not applicable, the state had enacted the Jammu and Kashmir Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2018, under which residents had to get an Aadhaar number for delivery of services, like elsewhere in the country.
Similarly, a local version of the Right to Education Act was enforced in the state. “In fact the state RTE law was an improvement over the central law as it provided for free education till university level,” said a senior J&K government official, who did not want to be named.
“Legally, all these laws already exist in the state as local laws. They were legislated by the state legislature,” the official added.
Another official told ThePrint that there was a corresponding law to most of the central law. “We have all the state laws except for a few like the 2013 land acquisition Act. After October 31, the central law will come into force in the two UTs.”
For instance, for the central Benami transactions Act, the corresponding state law is Jammu and Kashmir Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act. The Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2013 will be repealed and replace by the central law.
The Jammu and Kashmir Real Estate (Regulation and Development) will be repealed too, to be replaced by the central real estate law.
A total of 166 state laws — specially meant for the state — will continue to remain in force.
These include the Jammu and Kashmir Saffron Act, 2007, the Jammu and Kashmir Aerial Ropeways Act, 2002, the Jammu and Kashmir State Sheep and Sheep Products Development Board Act, 1979, Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Act, 1982, the Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988 among others.
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IPC to replace RPC
After Thursday, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) will replace the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) — named after Ranbir Singh, the erstwhile Dogra Maharaja of the state — which was untill now applicable in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Most of the sections in IPC were, however, present in RPC too, barring a few.
For example, Section 4 of the IPC, which deals with computer resources, does not find mention in the RPC. Also, Section 153AA of the IPC, which states that knowingly carrying arms in a mass drill is punishable, is not present in the RPC.
The RPC also does not have Section 195A (IPC) that says anyone who threatens, person giving false evidence or statement is liable for punishment.
Also, Section 304B of the IPC that deals with dowry deaths is also not part of the RPC.
“Though most of the provisions of IPC were part of the RPC, there were some important sections that did not find mention in RPC. With the IPC now applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, the cases will now be registered under IPC and not RPC,” said a senior police officer in Srinagar. “It will not make much of a difference in the functioning of the police, just that they will have to be given training on the additional sections under which criminal cases can now be registered,” he added.
Meanwhile, shutdown continues in Valley
Even as the new L-Gs are set to take oath, the situation in the Valley remains tense. People’s curfew, which started in August, continues with shops and business establishments closed, students staying away from schools and public transport remaining off the roads.
The security clampdown continued during the two-day visit of European Parliamentarians who left Wednesday. More than 10 incidents of stone-pelting were reported across the Valley.
Security has been stepped up across the state, and especially in Kashmir, and the authorities are hoping for a calm Thursday.
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