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The people’s newsroom

PolicyLadakh

Centre rewrites Ladakh hill council rules, lets administration set 7 to 24 elected seats

The amended regulation also allows up to four nominated members from women and unrepresented communities, and lets a council's term be extended if polls are impracticable.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
The main market street in Leh, Ladakh (file photo)
The main market street in Leh, Ladakh (file photo)Photo: Ingo Mehling / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Key points

  1. Each hill council can now have between 7 and 24 elected members, as the administration decides.
  2. Up to four members may be nominated from women and unrepresented communities.
  3. A council's five-year term can be extended if elections are considered impracticable.

The Centre has amended the rules that govern Ladakh’s autonomous hill development councils, giving the Union Territory’s administration the power to decide how many elected members each council will have, within a range of 7 to 24.

The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Amendment) Regulation brings the councils’ structure, terminology and election provisions in line with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, under which Ladakh became a Union Territory.

Under the new rules, the administration can nominate up to four members from among women and unrepresented communities, subject to a population-based limit. Each council will have a five-year term from the date fixed for its first meeting, unless it is dissolved earlier. That term can be extended if holding elections is considered impracticable.

The sitting Lok Sabha MP for Ladakh becomes an ex officio member of the council in each district. References to the “State” in the old text are replaced with “Union territory of Ladakh”, and references to the “Governor” with “Administrator”.

Why it matters now

The change comes as talks between the Centre and Ladakh’s two main political groupings are deadlocked. The Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance on Friday rejected a Home Ministry draft that proposes a directly elected body for the whole Union Territory. One of the questions the Centre says is still open is how that body would relate to the existing hill councils.

The two sides are due to meet again in New Delhi on 22 October.