POJK DPs and Kashmiri Migrants are now looking for their nominations to Legislative Assembly

DAYA SAGAR

Regular elections to 1st Legislative Assembly (LA) UT of J&K for direct election to 90 MLA single member constituencies are over with Phase- III polling on 1st Oct 2024. People are waiting for results after counting on 8th October. The LA of UT of J&K was to have direct elections for 90 MLA seats as against 83 for the areas of J&K State now included in UT of J&K, there can be 5 nominated members in UT of J&K as against just 2 in the then J&K State legislative assembly.
Section 47(1) of the un amended J&K State Constitution provided that the Legislative Assembly of J&K State shall consist of one hundred members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the State; Provided that the Sadar-i-Riyasat / Governor ( after amendment ) may, if he is of opinion that women are not adequately represented in the Assembly nominate not more than two women to be members thereof. The J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, Act 34 of 2019 too has provided for such like provision for Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K where in Section-15 provides for “Representation of women.-Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (3) of section 14 the Lieutenant Governor of the successor Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate upto two members to the Legislative Assembly to give representation to women, if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly.” Only difference earlier in J&K State Assembly provision was for not more than two woman members for nomination where as in UT of J&K provision is for up to two woman members for nomination by LG if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly. That means now the provision is more liberal.
For the LA of UT of J&K The J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, Act 34 of 2019 was further amended in 2003 through Act No 35 of 2023 so as to create provision for nomination by LG upto two additional members of LA out of Kashmiri Migrants( Section -15A) and one additional member of LA( Section-15 B) out of the DPs of POJK ( displaced persons from Pakistan Occupied areas of J&K ). Section-15A and 15(B) were added after Section-15 of J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, Act 34 of 2019 to make the total members in LA of UT of J&K 93- 95.
As regards the nominated woman members they are not to be necessarily nominated.
But as regards the nominated members out of POJK DPs [15B< Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of section 14, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate one member from displaced persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, the term “displaced person” means any person, who, on account of the setting up of the dominions of India and Pakistan, or on account of civil disturbances or fear of such disturbances in any area of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir presently under occupation of Pakistan, during the years 1947-48, 1965 and 1971, had left or had been displaced due to such disturbances from his place of residence in such area and who has been subsequently residing outside such area and also includes successors-in-interest of any such person.’] and Kashmiri migrants {15A < Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of section 14, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of Kashmiri Migrants, to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, the term “Migrant” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (e) of section 2 of the Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997.Section-15A> } it could be inferred that LG may nominate one person from POJK DPs and upto two persons i.e not more than two ( not necessarily two) from Kashmiri migrants out of which one has to be a woman where in one could ask in case only one is nominated then should that be only woman ?
Anyhow let us go for process of nomination . But in these days utmost need has arisen for believable fairness of any action that designated authority takes and particularly when the power to authority is ‘almost’ discretionary and J&K is a UT.
As regards the nomination of woman members (upto to two) the Act authorizes the LG if in his opinion, women are not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly , so for this first need is concerned it has to be felt after election results are declared..
But as regards the Kashmiri Migrants and POJK DPs are concerned they may be nominated as necessity but the issues are not that simple and if left to simple choice of LG or even choice of LG supported with the advice from the council of ministers there are all possibilities of people raising questions for fairness even when it is expected that a senior elder in the Chair of LG would be for all fairness. But still it could be suggested that in case the J&K Reorganisation of 2019 had instead provided for election of two additional members of LA of J&K UT out of the registered Kashmiri Migrants voters who are already provided the facility for casting their vote for 90 regular members of LA in polling stations to be set up outside Kashmir Valley ( in Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi ) and similarly for the registered POJK DPs to elect specifically one additional member of LA out of the POJK DPs ( although there has been no regular registration for them still it could be estimated that their number of 1947 times may be more than 42000 families and /1965/1971 times may be more than 10000 families and taken together may be more than 150000 families this day ) that could be better done by direct election by giving opportunity to the community instead of picking out members for nomination. The POJK DPs are already expressing their concern for naming only one member for nomination out of them even when for Kashmiri Migrants two members have been named for nomination.
As per Relief Commissioner Migrants Jammu as on March 2022 there was registration of 44089 Kashmiri migrant families in Jammu (Relief Category: Families:20822 & Persons:66387, Non Relief Category: Families:23267 & Persons:83886 ). Similarly religion wise numbers in March 2022 for Kashmiri migrants were (1) Hindu: Families:39868 & Persons:133326 (2) Muslim: Families:2574 & Persons:11092 (3) Sikh: Families:1642 & Persons:5836 (4) Other: Families:5 & Persons 19. No doubt some Kashmiri migrant families are registered in Delhi also. Numbers quoted here are just for broader idea.
No doubt the present Parliament needs credits for creating such provisions for POJK DPs and the Kashmiri migrants but still something more could be done. So still in case provision for elections is created in the Act it would further strengthen faith of communities in the truthful intentions of the Parliament of India and it would not be of any loss in case the their election takes 3 to 4 months more after formation of government in J&K and that would also provide all sanctity to providing voting right to nominated members in the Assembly regarding constitutional matters. It is not out of place to mention here that there is a good number of organizations of Kashmir Migrants and POJK DPs.
No doubt POJK DPs and Kashmiri Migrant families need a very compassionate & fair attention.
(The writer is Sr Journalist, analyst J&K affairs and social activist)