MHA floats Article 371 Chapter K for an elected Ladakh body, still without a draft

The Union Home Ministry put a name to its Ladakh offer on 9 September: a new Chapter K under Article 371. Officials told the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance that a Union Territory-level body, elected directly, would get legislative power over land, culture and language, forests, environment and natural resources, plus any other subject reserved for the territory under Article 240.

What they did not hand over was a draft. Cherring Dorjay Lakruk of the Leh Apex Body told The Hindu the meeting repeated the May 22 briefing and that a PowerPoint slide mentioning Chapter K was not the same as a legal text. Sajjad Kargili, co-chairman of the Kargil Democratic Alliance, said discussion without a draft does not inspire confidence in Leh or Kargil.

Ladakh Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra, who sat in the room, struck a different note on X. He wrote that a general air of positivity prevailed and that the goal was deepening democracy through a sui generis model under Article 371.

What Chapter K is meant to do

Article 371 already carries special arrangements for several states, from Nagaland's 371A to Sikkim's 371F. A new clause for Ladakh would be the first time the article is used to rebuild political power in a Union Territory created without a legislature.

Ladakh lost its state legislature when Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised in August 2019. Since then, civil society groups in both Leh and Kargil have demanded either full statehood or a written substitute: an elected house with control over land, jobs, culture and the bureaucracy that implements those subjects.

The May 22 high-powered committee meeting produced an in-principle deal. Statehood would remain a long-term demand. In the near term, the Centre would create a customised elected body with executive, financial and legislative powers and write safeguards under Article 371. Minutes signed in Leh on 3 July added that the body would exercise control and supervision, including Annual Performance Appraisal Reports, over civil servants handling subjects under its charge.

Wednesday's session was meant to turn that sentence into a draft. Instead, the ministry restated the list of subjects and asked more questions for the next meeting.

The gaps the groups listed

LAB and KDA said there is still no clarity on law and order. They pointed to Puducherry, a Union Territory with a legislature that still shares police and public order with the Centre, and said Ladakh needs a written answer on who commands the police, the district magistrates and the chief secretary.

They also want the elected body to hold executive, budgetary, planning and financial powers in full, not only the right to pass laws that an appointed lieutenant governor can sit on. Delimitation and the number of constituencies were mentioned, they said, but not settled.

Kargili later called the session a kind of joke because a list of questions arrived in place of a bill. Lakruk said the groups will judge the offer only when a draft reaches Leh and Kargil and they can see whether the May assurances survive the fine print.

Why the wording matters now

Ladakh's politics have been tense since 2019. Protests over jobs, land and representation produced shutdowns in both districts. The May minutes themselves had to be rewritten after LAB and KDA accused the Centre of dropping the bureaucracy clause. Those revised minutes were signed in Leh in early July. Four months later, the legal vehicle has a working title and no published text.

A Chapter K clause would have to pass Parliament as a constitutional amendment or as part of a statute tied to Article 371. Either route takes time and a precise schedule of subjects. Until that schedule exists, the lieutenant governor continues to run the territory under Article 240, and the elected Hill Councils in Leh and Kargil remain the only local legislatures.

Kundra's public line is that the model will be custom-built rather than copied from Nagaland or Mizoram. That is consistent with earlier Home Ministry notes, which said northeastern precedents may not fit Ladakh's history. The groups accept a custom model. They do not accept another meeting that ends with slides.

The next test is simple and public. Either the ministry circulates a draft that names the house, its subjects, its grip on officers and its relation to the lieutenant governor, or Chapter K stays a heading on a presentation. Ladakh's organisations have already said they will treat only the former as a real offer.