SC declines plea against J-K L-G's power to nominate 5 MLAs

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging the Lieutenant Governor’s power to nominate five members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, saying everything need not land before it.

“They may nominate, may not nominate...We don’t know. Go to the high court. Not everything has to come to this court directly,” a Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented petitioner Ravinder Kumar Sharma.

"We are not inclined to entertain the present petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India and give liberty to the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional high court by way of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. We clarify that we have not expressed any opinion on merits,” said the Bench which also included Justice Sanjay Kumar.

President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday signed a notification that formally ended the President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, paving the way for formation of an elected government -- five years after abrogation of Article 370.

Sharma had challenged Sections 15, 15A and 15B of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which authorised the L-G to nominate five members to the legislative assembly.

Section 15 of the Act empowers the Lt Governor to nominate two members to the Legislative Assembly to give representation to women, if in his opinion women are not adequately represented in the House. Section 15A – which was added to the Act in 2023 further empowers the L-G to nominate two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the Kashmiri migrant community to the assembly and Section 15B says he can nominate one member from displaced persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the House.

“Suppose I have a strength of 48 in the 90-member assembly. That’s three above the majority mark. If the L-G nominates five MLAs, the other side can become 47 and it boils down to just one member. You can completely frustrate the electoral mandate by using this power... What if they decide to raise the nomination from five to 10?” Singhvi wondered.

However, the Bench was apparently not convinced as it pointed out that the L-G has not done it so far and that there had to be some reasons behind these provisions. “Let the high court examine all this,” it said, adding the petition was filed before the election results were declared.

"If they do something…if the High Court does not give you a stay, you can move over here..." the Bench told Singhvi.

The National Conference won 42 seats in the 90-member House while its ally Congress won six. Four independent MLAs have also extended support to the National Conference. The BJP won 29 seats, the PDP three and the People's Conference and the Aam Aadmi Party won one seat each. There are seven independent MLAs in the newly elected legislative assembly of the Union Territory.