The Supreme Court Monday declined to entertain a plea against the Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor’s expected nomination of five members to the Assembly and asked the petitioner to approach the High Court.
“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 writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India,” said a two-judge bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
The court clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the issue.
The amended Section 15 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, gives the L-G power to nominate two women, two Kashmiri Pandits, and a resident of Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) to the 95-member J&K Assembly, 90 of whom are elected.
Appearing for the petitioner Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Senior Advocate A M Singhvi told the bench, also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar, that allowing the L-G to nominate the five members would effectively give the Opposition 47 seats, against the 48 seats secured by the National Conference-Congress alliance.
“It’s a basic structure issue. When you have this system of nominating beyond 90… what happens… 48 is my alliance. That’s three above the majority. The total of all the others is 42… If you nominate five… you become 47 and I become 48. You have to only get one more person. You can nullify the elected mandate… a Central government nomination means the person who has won the election can be negated…this is outside of 90,” Singhvi submitted.
He said: “Suppose this five becomes ten tomorrow, by way of an amendment?”
Justice Khanna, however, said that the nominations had not happened yet. He said the petitioner should first approach the J&K High Court.
“If they do something, if the High Court does not give you stay, you can move over here…” said Justice Khanna.