Srinagar: The Government of India has issued an order for adaptation of state and central laws for the newly carved out Union Territory of Ladakh.
According to the order, as many as 86 laws enacted by legislature of the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir have been repealed while 56 such statutes have been made applicable with modifications.
As many as 43 central laws have been made applicable to the UT of Ladakh with certain modifications and substitutions, the order reveals.
This was the first such order issued for UT of Ladakh under section 96 of Jammu & Kashmir Re-organisation Act, which empowers Centre to amend J&K specific laws through an executive order.
“For the purpose of facilitating the application in relation to the successor Union Territories, of any law made before the appointed day, as detailed in Fifth Schedule, the Central Government may, before the expiration of one year from that day, by order, make such adaptations and modifications of the law, whether by way of repeal or amendment, as may be necessary or expedient, and thereupon every such law shall have effect subject to the adaptations and modifications so made until altered, repealed or amended by a competent Legislature or other competent authority,” reads the provision of the law.
The order has been issued six days before the first anniversary of re-organisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories.
Both J&K and Ladakh formally separated and started functioning as UTs from October 31 , 2019 nearly two months after Centre abrogated Article 370 and approved legal framework for re-organisation of Jammu & Kashmir.
Meanwhile, in exercise of powers conferred by section 80 of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 and all other provisions enabling in this behalf, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has made amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996.
As per a notification issued here today in this regard by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Sub-rule (1) of rule 74 shall be substituted by the sub-rule namely “ (1) Every candidate who desires to contest the election of Sarpanch/Panch of Halqa Panchayat/Elected Member in District Development Council/Chairperson of Panchayati Adalat/ Chairperson, Block Development Council/Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of District Development Council shall have to take an oath as per “Form 4” of the rules before the prescribed authorities.”
In rule 74-A, in sub-rule (1) for the words “Chairman of Block Development Council”, the words and sign “Chairperson of Block Development Council/Member of District Development Council/Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of District Development Council” shall be substituted.
After sub-rule (3) of rule 108-A, the sub-rules shall be inserted namely “(3A) The number of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Women for each District Development Council shall be fixed on the basis of prescribed ratio under section 45-A of the Act for each category and applying the principles of mathematic round off with the part fraction of 0.5 and above being rounded off to one and part fraction below 0.5 being ignored for each constituency separately. (3B) The number of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste as provided in Rule 3A shall be allotted to different territorial constituencies on the basis of proportion of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste population to total population of the constituency in descending order, that is, from amongst the territorial constituencies in the District Development Council, the territorial constituency having the largest proportion of the Scheduled Tribes population shall be allotted to them and the territorial constituencies having the largest proportion of Scheduled Caste population shall be allotted to them.
In the subsequent elections, the allotment shall be made in the aforesaid manner so that as far as may be practicable, the territorial constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the previous election shall not be allotted to Scheduled Tribes, and the territorial constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes shall not be allotted to the Scheduled Castes. (with inputs from KNO)
