Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly | |
|---|---|
| 13th Jammu and Kashmir Assembly | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
Term limits | 5 years |
| History | |
| Founded | 1957 by Monarchy Commission, Presidential Commission. |
| Preceded by | Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly |
| Leadership | |
Manoj Sinha since 7 August 2020 | |
Speaker | |
Deputy Speaker | Vacant |
Leader of the House (Chief Minister) | |
Deputy Chief Minister (Deputy Leader of the House) | |
Chief Whip | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 90+5 (5 nominated by LG) |
 Partywise Alliance wise | |
Political groups | Government (52) Official Opposition (29)
Other Opposition (9) |
| Elections | |
| First past the post | |
Last election | 18 September 2024 to 1 October 2024 |
Next election | September-October 2029 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Legislative Assembly,Srinagar (Summer session) | |
| Legislative Assembly,Jammu (Winter session) | |
| Website | |
| jkla | |
TheJammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of Indian union territory ofJammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is the legislative arm of theGovernment of Jammu and Kashmir. At present, it consists of 95members, directly elected from95 constituencies. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years unless dissolved sooner.
Prior to 2019, theState of Jammu and Kashmir had a bicameral legislature with a legislative assembly (lower house) and a legislative council (upper house). TheJammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, passed by theParliament of India in August 2019, replaced this with a unicameral legislature while also re-organising the state into aunion territory.[2] The current 13th assembly was elected in September and October 2024.
The first legislature of theprincely state of Jammu and Kashmir, called thePraja Sabha, was established by the government of theMaharajaHari Singh in 1934.[3] It had 33 elected seats, 30 nominated members and 12ex-officio members.[4]
Thefirst election in 1934 saw the Liberal Group headed by Pandit Ram Chander Dubey emerge as the largest party and theMuslim Conference as the second largest (with 14 seats).[5] Further elections were held in 1938 and 1947.
In 1939, the Muslim Conference party renamed itself toNational Conference under the leadership ofSheikh Abdullah and opened its membership to people of all religions. It launched aQuit Kashmir movement in 1946 and boycotted the 1947 election.[6]
After the accession of theprincely state ofJammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947, the Maharaja ceded powers to a popular government headed by Sheikh Abdullah.Elections for aconstituent assembly were held in 1951, in which Abdullah's National Conference won all 75 seats.
In 1957, a new constitution was adopted by the constituent assembly, which established abicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, theJammu and Kashmir Legislative Council and a lower house, the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.[7]Wali Mohammad Itoo of the National Conference was speaker of the assembly between 7 July 1983 and 31 July 1984.[8]
In 2019,Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, wasabrogated[9] andJammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed to reconstitute the state ofJammu and Kashmir into union territories ofJammu and Kashmir andLadakh with effect from 31 October 2019.[10] The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has aunicameral Legislative Assembly. TheJammu and Kashmir Legislative Council was formally abolished on 31 October 2019.[11][12]
In March 2020, a three-member Delimitation Commission was formed, chaired by retired JusticeRanjana Prakash Desai, for the delimitation of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.[13] The commission published its interim report in February 2022.[14] The final delimitation report was released on 5 May 2022[15] and it came into force from 20 May 2022.[16]
The first elections to the reconstituted assembly with 90 elected seats were held in September 2024.
The Legislative Assembly was initially composed of 100 members, later increased to 111 by the thenConstitution of Jammu and Kashmir (Twentieth Amendment) Act of 1988.[7] Of these, 24 seats were designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that came under Pakistani control in 1947.[7] These seats remained officially vacant as per section 48 of the then state constitution and now also in The Constitution of India.[7] These seats were not taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the assembly, especially for decidingquorum and voting majorities for legislation and government formation.[7] Hence the total contestable and filled seats of the assembly were 87 seats. TheKashmir Valley region had 46 seats, theJammu region had 37 seats, andLadakh region had 4 seats.
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed to reconstitute the state ofJammu and Kashmir into union territories ofJammu and Kashmir andLadakh.[10] In March 2020, Delimitation Commission was formed for the delimitation of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir prior to the2024 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election.[13] The delimitation report added additional 6 seats to theJammu division and 1 seat toKashmir division. After delimitation, the total seats in the assembly rose to a total of 119 seats with 114 elected seats, out of which 24 seats are designated for areas that fall underPakistan-administered Kashmir and 5 seats are to be nominated by the Lt. Governor of UT. Out of the remaining 90 seats, 43 seats are in Jammu division and 47 seats are in the Kashmir division. With this, hindu majority Jammu with a population of 53 lakh (43% of the total population of 1.22 crore) will have 47% seats, while muslim majority Kashmir which has a population of 68 lakh (56%) will have 52% of the seats.[15]
The parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 which provides for reservation of 7 seats for the Scheduled Castes and 9 seats for the Scheduled Tribes.[17][18]
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 provides for nomination of 2 members to the Legislative Assembly by theLieutenant Governor if women are not adequately represented in the house.[19] Following amendment to the Act in 2023, the Lieutenant Governor may also nominate two representatives of Kashmiri migrant families (one seat reserved for woman) and one member to represent the migrants fromPakistan-administered Kashmir,[20] presently making the total number of nominated members maximum five.
Members of the Legislative Assembly were elected for a six-year term up to 2019 and five-year term thereafter. The seats are filled bydirect election from single member constituencies using thefirst past the post method. The assembly may be dissolved before the completion of the full term by the Lieutenant Governor upon the advice of theChief Minister. The Lieutenant Governor may also convenespecial sessions of the legislative assembly.
The membership of the13th Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by party is as follows:
Source:[22]
| Office | Holder | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker | Abdul Rahim Rather | 4 November 2024 |
| Leader of the House (Chief Minister) | Omar Abdullah[23] | 16 October 2024 |
| Deputy Chief Minister (Deputy Leader of the House) | Surinder Kumar Choudhary | 16 October 2024 |
| Leader of the Opposition | Sunil Kumar Sharma | 3 November 2024 |
| Secretary | Manoj Kumar Pandit[24] | 31 October 2022 |
The membership of the assembly is as follows:[25]
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