ExplainedLadakh
Article 371-K explained: what the Centre offered Ladakh, and why Leh and Kargil said no
The Home Ministry's draft would give Ladakh its own special article in the Constitution and an elected body for the whole Union Territory. Ladakh's leaders rejected it within hours. What Article 371 is, how it differs from the Sixth Schedule, and what is left to negotiate on 22 October.
The short answer
Article 371 is a group of special provisions in the Constitution for particular states, such as Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram, that protect local laws, customs and land. The Centre has offered Ladakh a new Article 371-K, followed by a presidential regulation under Article 240, to create a directly elected body for the Union Territory with safeguards for land, resources and culture. The Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance say this falls short of what they want: Sixth Schedule protection and a legislature with real legislative, executive and financial powers. Talks resume in New Delhi on 22 October.
What has the Centre offered?
A special article in the Constitution for Ladakh, and an elected body for the whole Union Territory.
On 16 October the Home Ministry handed Ladakh’s two main political groupings a 32-page framework. It works in two stages. First, Parliament would amend the Constitution to insert a new Article 371-K for Ladakh. Then the President would issue a regulation under Article 240 to fill in the detail: a directly elected body for the Union Territory, with safeguards for land, natural resources and culture.
Much is left open. Ladakh’s Chief Secretary, Ashish Kundra, listed the gaps himself on Saturday: the body’s name and make-up, how and by whom its members would be elected, seats for women and smaller communities, nominated members, delimitation, electoral rolls, tenure, and how it would sit alongside the hill councils, panchayats and municipalities. “Not every detail can be incorporated into a constitutional amendment,” he said.
What is Article 371?
A set of special provisions for particular states, written into the Constitution one by one.
Articles 371 and 371A to 371J give individual states safeguards that the rest of the country does not have. The best known are for the Northeast. Article 371A, for Nagaland, and Article 371G, for Mizoram, say that no Act of Parliament on the people’s religious or social practices, customary law, or the ownership and transfer of land applies there unless the state Assembly decides it should. Article 371F set the terms on which Sikkim joined India in 1975.
In May the Centre and Ladakh’s leaders agreed in principle to extend safeguards to Ladakh along the lines of Articles 371A, 371F and 371G. That is the yardstick the Leh and Kargil leaders are now using.
And the Sixth Schedule?
A different and older model, built around tribal self-government.
The Sixth Schedule, under Articles 244(2) and 275(1), covers tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. There are 10 autonomous district councils, each with up to 30 members, 26 of them elected. They can make laws on land, forests, water, village administration, inheritance, marriage and social customs, run village courts, and manage primary schools, markets and roads. Acts of Parliament or the state may apply to these areas only with changes, or not at all.
More than 97% of Ladakh’s people belong to Scheduled Tribes. That is why the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have asked for the Sixth Schedule since Ladakh became a Union Territory without a legislature in 2019. Their other demands are statehood, separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil, and recruitment to vacant government jobs.
Three routes to safeguards for Ladakh
What is Article 240, and why does it matter here?
It lets the President make laws for some Union Territories by regulation.
Regulations under Article 240 carry the force of an Act of Parliament and can amend or repeal existing laws. The Centre has already used this route in Ladakh. In June 2025 it capped reservation in government jobs at 85%, set a 15-year domicile rule, named English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi as official languages, and reserved a third of hill council seats for women.
The worry in Leh and Kargil is that what one regulation gives, another can take away. Putting the new body’s powers into a regulation rather than the constitutional amendment itself leaves the detail in the Centre’s hands.
Why did the LAB and KDA reject the draft?
They say it gives them less than they were promised.
KDA co-chairman Asgar Ali Karbalai said the Home Ministry had “backtracked” from the May understanding and that the proposed body would rank below the existing hill councils. He called it “not a good signal”. The two groups want a legislature with legislative, executive and financial powers, not an advisory or administrative body.
Kundra said the dismissal of the document “within just two hours of being received” was surprising, and that the Centre was willing to consider changes. “There is no reason for anyone to lose hope,” he said.
Why are tempers short?
Because the talks have been going for years, and Ladakh has seen violence over them.
In late September 2025 protests in Leh turned violent: four people were killed and about 150 injured. The climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had begun a hunger strike on 10 September on behalf of the LAB and KDA, was detained under the National Security Act on 26 September. The talks resumed months later and produced the May understanding.
Meanwhile, the Centre has been reshaping Ladakh’s institutions on its own. Five new districts were created in April, taking the total to seven, and this week it amended the hill council rules so that the administration can set the number of elected seats between 7 and 24 and extend a council’s term if polls are judged impracticable.
What happens next?
The two sides meet in New Delhi on 22 October. The question is whether the Centre will move the new body’s powers into the constitutional text, and whether Leh and Kargil will accept anything short of the Sixth Schedule.