Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly | |
---|---|
12th Jammu and Kashmir Assembly (Dissolved) | |
Type | |
Type | |
Term limits | 5 years |
History | |
Founded | 1957 by Monarchy Commission, Presidential Commission. |
Preceded by | Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly |
Leadership | |
Lieutenant Governor | Manoj Sinha since 7 August 2020 |
Speaker | Vacant since 31 October 2019 |
Deputy Speaker | Vacant since 31 October 2019 |
Leader of the House (Chief Minister) | Vacant since 31 October 2019 |
Deputy Leader of the House (Deputy Chief Minister) | Vacant since 31 October 2019 |
Structure | |
Seats | 119 (90 seats + 24 seats reserved for Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir) + 5 Nominated by LG |
Political groups | |
Elections | |
First past the post | |
Last election | 25 November to 20 December 2014 |
Next election | 18 September 2024 to 1 October 2024 |
Meeting place | |
Legislative Assembly, Srinagar (Summer session) | |
Legislative Assembly, Jammu (Winter session) | |
Website | |
jkla |
The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha is the legislature of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved by the Governor on 21 November 2018. [1]
Prior to 2019, the State of Jammu and Kashmir had a bicameral legislature with a legislative assembly (lower house) and a legislative council (upper house). The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, passed by the Parliament of India in August 2019, replaced this with a unicameral legislature while also re-organising the state into a union territory.
The first legislature of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, called the Praja Sabha, was established by the government of the Maharaja Hari Singh in 1934. [2] It had 33 elected seats, 30 nominated members and 12 ex-officio members. [3]
The first election in 1934 saw the Liberal Group headed by Pandit Ram Chander Dubey emerge as the largest party and the Muslim Conference as the second largest (with 14 seats). [4] Further elections were held in 1938 and 1947.
In 1939, the Muslim Conference party renamed itself to National Conference under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah and opened its membership to people of all religions. It launched a Quit Kashmir movement in 1946 and boycotted the 1947 election. [5]
After the accession of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947, the Maharaja ceded powers to a popular government headed by Sheikh Abdullah. Elections for a constituent assembly were held in 1951, in which Abdullah's National Conference won all 75 seats.
In 1957, a new constitution was adopted by the constituent assembly, which established a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council and a lower house, the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. [6] Wali Mohammad Itoo of the National Conference was speaker of the assembly between 7 July 1983 and 31 July 1984. [7]
In 2019, Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated [8] and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed to reconstitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with effect from 31 October 2019. [9] The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has a unicameral Legislative Assembly. The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council was formally abolished on 16 October 2019. [10] [11]
In March 2020, a three-member Delimitation Commission was formed, chaired by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, for the delimitation of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. [12] The commission published its interim report in February 2022. [13] The final delimitation report was released on 5 May 2022 [14] and it came into force from 20 May 2022. [15]
The Legislative Assembly was initially composed of 100 members, later increased to 111 by the then Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir (Twentieth Amendment) Act of 1988. [6] Of these, 24 seats were designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that came under Pakistani control in 1947. [6] These seats remained officially vacant as per section 48 of the then state constitution and now also in The Constitution of India. [6] These seats were not taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the assembly, especially for deciding quorum and voting majorities for legislation and government formation. [6] Hence the total contestable and filled seats of the assembly were 87 seats. The Kashmir valley region had 46 seats, the Jammu region had 37 seats, and Ladakh region had 6 seats.(but some sources say ladakh had 4 and mathematically its also understood )
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed to reconstitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. [9] In March 2020, Delimitation Commission was formed for the delimitation of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir prior to the next Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election. [12] The delimitation report added additional 6 seats to the Jammu division and 1 seat to Kashmir division. After delimitation, the total seats in the assembly rose to 114 seats, out of which 24 seats are designated for areas that fall under Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Out of the remaining 90 seats, 43 seats are in Jammu division and 47 seats are in the Kashmir division. [14]
The parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 which provides for reservation of 7 seats for the Scheduled Castes and 9 seats for the Scheduled Tribes. [16] [17]
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 provides for nomination of 2 members to the Legislative Assembly by the Lieutenant Governor if women are not adequately represented in the house. [18]
Following amendment to the Act in 2023, the Lieutenant Governor may nominate two representatives of Kashmiri migrant families (one seat reserved for woman) and one member to represent the migrants from Pakistan administered Kashmir. [19]
Members of the Legislative Assembly were elected for a six-year term up to 2019 and five-year term thereafter. The seats are filled by direct election from single member constituencies using the first past the post method. The assembly may be dissolved before the completion of the full term by the Lieutenant Governor upon the advice of the Chief Minister. The Lieutenant Governor may also convene special sessions of the legislative assembly.
The assembly is currently dissolved.
Source: [20]
The assembly is currently dissolved.
Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century. The underlying region of this state were parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, whose western districts, now known as Azad Kashmir, and northern territories, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, are administered by Pakistan. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.
A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district (constituency) to the legislature of State government in the Indian system of government. From each constituency, the people elect one representative who then becomes a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Each state has between seven and nine MLAs for every Member of Parliament (MP) that it has in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's bicameral parliament. There are also members in three unicameral legislatures in Union Territories: the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the Puducherry Legislative Assembly. Only a Member of the Legislative Assembly can work as a minister for more than 6 months. If a non-Member of the Legislative Assembly becomes a Chief Minister or a minister, he must become an MLA within 6 months to continue in the job. Only a Member of the Legislative Assembly can become the Speaker of the Legislature.
Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since 1947. Jammu and Kashmir was administered by India as a state from 17 November 1952 to 31 October 2019, and Article 370 conferred on it the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.
In India, a number of political positions and university posts are held for specific groups of the population, including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and women in some cases.
Jammu and Kashmir is administered by the Republic of India within the framework of a federal parliamentary republic as a union territory, like the union territory of Puducherry, with a multi-party democratic system of governance. Until 2019, it was governed as a state administered by India. Politics in the region reflects the historical tension and dispute that the state has been a part of in the form of the Kashmir conflict. The head of state is the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, currently Manoj Sinha, while the head of government is the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, currently vacant. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, although this was dissolved by the Governor on 21 November 2018. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, also known as Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of bicameral legislature of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house. Members of the Assembly are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, and they hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the Governor on the advice of the council of ministers. The house meets in the Vidhan Sabha Chambers of the Vidhan Bhavan, Lucknow.
A union territory is a type of administrative division in the Republic of India. Unlike the states of India, which have their own governments, union territories are federal territories governed, in part or in whole, by the Union Government of India. There are currently eight union territories in India: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi (NCT), Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was the legal Constitution which established the framework for the state government of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The constitution was adopted on 17 November 1956, and came into effect on 26 January 1957. It was rendered infructuous on 5 August 2019 by an order signed by the President of India and ceased to be applicable on that date. It also included Ladakh.
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir is the governing authority of the Jammu and Kashmir and its two divisions and 20 districts.
The State flag of Jammu and Kashmir was a symbol used in the former Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between 1952 and 2019, under the special status accorded to the region by Article 370 of the Constitution of India. It was a red-and-white flag with a representation of a plough and three constituent regions of the state. After the abolition of Article 370 in August 2019, this flag lost its official status.
The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council was the upper house of the legislature of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are conducted in accordance with the Constitution of India to elect the representatives of various bodies at national, state and district levels including the 114 seat unicameral Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the Parliament of India. The first elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir took place between 28 November and 19 December 2020 in the form of by-elections to District Development Councils and municipal and panchayat level bodies. A fresh delimitation process for assembly constituencies began in February–March 2020.
The 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in five phases from 25 November – 20 December 2014. Voters elected 87 members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, which ends its six-year term on 19 January 2020. The results were declared on 23 December 2014. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) along with EVMs were used in 3 assembly seats out of 87 in Jammu Kashmir elections.
Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was an article that empowered the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them which were not available to Indian citizens in general. It was added to the Constitution through a presidential order, i.e., The Constitution Order, 1954 – issued by the President of India under Article 370. Under the state's separate constitution, which is now defunct, permanent residents had could purchase land and immovable property, vote and contest elections, seek government employment and avail themselves of other state benefits such as higher education and health care. Non-permanent residents of the state, even if Indian citizens, were not entitled to these 'privileges'.
Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and between India and China since 1959. The Line of Control separates Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and north. It lies to the north of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and to the west of Ladakh which is administered by India as a union territory.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is an act of the parliament of India containing provisions to reconstitute the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Indian-administered union territories (UTs) called Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, and becoming effective on 31 October 2019. A bill for the act was introduced by the Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, in the Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2019 and was passed on the same day. It was then passed by the Lok Sabha on 6 August 2019 and it received the president's assent on 9 August 2019.
Wachi was one of the 85 constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the Jammu and Kashmir, a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019. Wachi assembly constituency was a part of Shopian, a hill district of the union territory. It was officially replaced and renamed as the Zainapora Assembly constituency in May 2022 after the parliament of India introduced Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Legislative Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Jammu and Kashmir from 18 September to 1 October 2024 in 3 phases to elect 90 members of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 8 October 2024.