197 laws modified, repealed under Re-organisation Act till date
Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar, Oct 9: The Central Government is set to lose its powers to make changes in the laws of Jammu & Kashmir through executive orders.
The Centre will have no authority beyond October 30 to modify the existing laws through executive actions as it was empowered by the Parliament to exercise these powers for only one-year period starting from October 31, 2019.
“As per section 96 of Jammu & Kashmir Re-Organisation Act, the Central Government can make adaptations and modifications in laws made applicable to J&K UT for one- year period beginning from the appointed day of both the UTs carved out from erstwhile state of J&K. So the Centre cannot exercise these powers from October 31,” officials told Precious Kashmir.
The provision was incorporated in the Re-organistaion Act to facilitate application of laws made applicable to the UTs before October 31, 2019
“For the purpose of facilitating the application in relation to the successor Union Territories, of any law made before the appointed day, as detailed in Fifth Schedule to this Act, the Central Government may, before the expiration of one year from that day, by order, make such adaptations and modifications of the law, whether by way of repeal or amendment, as may be necessary or expedient, and thereupon every such law shall have effect subject to the adaptations and modifications so made until altered, repealed or amended by a competent Legislature or other competent authority,” reads section 96 of Jammu & Kashmir Re-Organisation Act.
Post re-organisation of Jammu & Kashmir, the Union Home Ministry has issued five orders to make adaptations and modifications in laws made applicable to J&K UT.
The first such order was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on March 18 this year when it made changes in 38 central laws made applicable to J&K UT.
On March 31, second such order was issued by the MHA for adaptation of state laws.
By virtue of this order, 113 laws were modified and 25 were repealed as a whole.
Three days later, the Centre came up with third such order to modify the domicile job law to the extent that all the jobs in the UT were reserved for its domiciles which also includes non-locals living in the UT for 15 years. The earlier order only level-4 jobs for the domiciles.
Two separate orders were issued on 5th of this month to modify 11 central laws and 10 state laws.
