Discuss the nature of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly after the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. Briefly…

Nature of the Assembly after 2019

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 split the State into two Union Territories and gave a legislature only to the UT of Jammu and Kashmir; Section 13 extends Article 239A (the Puducherry model) to it. The legislature is now unicameral, as the Legislative Council was abolished. After the 2022 delimitation it has 90 elected seats (43 in Jammu, 47 in Kashmir), seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and up to five members nominated by the Lieutenant Governor (two women, and, under the 2023 amendment, two Kashmiri migrants and one person displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). Its term is five years, and the first elections under the Act were held in September–October 2024.

Powers and functions

• Legislation: it can make laws on State List matters except public order and police, and on Concurrent List matters; a parliamentary law prevails in case of conflict (Section 32).
• Finance: it passes the budget and money bills, which need the Lieutenant Governor's recommendation.
• Executive accountability: the Council of Ministers, headed by the Chief Minister and capped at 10% of the Assembly's strength, is collectively responsible to it; questions, motions and committees enforce this.
• Limits: the Lieutenant Governor may assent to, withhold or reserve bills for the President, and acts in his discretion on police, public order, All India Services and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (Section 53; Business Rules amended in 2024).

The Assembly is thus a subordinate legislature with responsible government but a strong Lieutenant Governor, pending the restoration of statehood that the Union assured the Supreme Court of in the Article 370 case (2023).