In the recent elections, the National Conference and Congress alliance won 49 seats in the 90-member assembly. NC won 42 seats, Congress 6 and Communist Party of India (Marxist) one seat, taking the alliance’s strength to 49.
The Supreme Court today (Monday) refused to hear the petition challenging the authority of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Jammu and Kashmir under which the Lieutenant Governor can nominate five MLAs to the Assembly. A bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar bluntly told senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, “They may nominate, or they may not…we do not know. You go to the High Court. Every matter goes directly to the Supreme Court.” I shouldn’t come.” This comment of the Supreme Court has come when National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is going to take oath as the Chief Minister of this Union Territory.
Singhvi was representing petitioner Ravinder Kumar Sharma, resident of Jammu and Kashmir. In his petition, Sharma has challenged Sections 15, 15A and 15B of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. These provisions empower the LG to nominate five members to the assembly, which could potentially change the composition of the elected body. Singhvi, assisted by senior advocate Sunil Fernandes, tried to highlight the seriousness of the issue. He argued that this pertains to the basic structure of the Constitution, and poses a major threat to the electoral mandate.
Singhvi said, “Suppose I have the strength of 48 in the 90-member assembly. This is three more than the majority. If the LG nominates five MLAs, on the other hand, their number, including all the members, could be 47, falling just one short of the majority. If in future he decides to increase the nominations from five to ten, then by using this power he can completely change the electoral mandate.”
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To this the bench retorted and said, “First of all, he has not done so yet. Secondly, they should have some reasons behind having these provisions. The High Court should investigate all this and it appears that this petition was filed even before the election results were declared.” After this, in its short order, the bench said, “We consider this petition under Article 32 (writ jurisdiction) of the Constitution. Not willing to consider the petition. We grant liberty to the petitioner to approach the High Court having jurisdiction under Article 226 (writ).”
On this, Singhvi told the bench that if something big happens in this case then he should be allowed to come back. In response, the bench said: “This has not happened yet, and we can also say that it should not happen.”
