‘Representation ensures’: MHA J&K defends LG enrollment to assembly; The affidavit submits HC. Bharat News

New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Monday defended the power given to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir to nominate five members in the Legislative Assembly.The Ministry submitted an affidavit to Jammu and Kashmir High Court in response to the petition of Congress leader Ravinder Sharma, challenging the constitutional validity of Section 15, 15-A and 15-B of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, which authorizes the Governor to enroll the minister without support and advice.Ravinder Sharma, a member of the former Legislative Council and chief spokesperson of the Congress of J&K, said in his petition that these sections can potentially change the minority government in a majority, or other way.In its affidavit, the ministry politically motivated the plea and defended the provision required for the inclusion and adequate representation of all communities in the assembly. The Center said, “The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir required the enactment of classes to ensure adequate representation and inclusion in the Legislative Assembly,” the Center said.Under these provisions, LG can nominate three assembly members-two, at least one woman from the Sashmi Pravasi community, and one of the displaced people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.The affidavit states that women were not adequately represented in the assembly, and the provision would help to increase the voices of such historically inferior communities. MHA further stated that two members of the Kashmiri migrant community were required as many parts of the region have faced unrest from the decade. It states that there is no assembly representative for people displaced from Jammu and Kashmir currently occupied by Pakistan, so this provision is necessary.The affidavit stated that J&K was ruled by the Parliament of India, as a center area. “Jammu -Kashmir does not maintain any particular situation and all the laws made by the Parliament of India will apply to the UT of Jammu and Kashmir,” it reads. According to the affidavit, the provision follows the Legislative Authority for the LGS of the center areas of Delhi and Puducherry.PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehboba Mufti rapidly criticized MHA’s remarks, called it “the astonishing sabotage of democratic principles”. He urged the Omar Abdullah government to oppose this “undemocratic example”, warning that “the silence would now be a complexity.”