Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 3: The framing of first ever Law Commission for Jammu and Kashmir has fallen victim to the ongoing controversy over Article 370 with the State Cabinet today deferring the proposal for indefinite period following protest from the Congress Ministers.
Sources told EXCELSIOR that when the proposal of Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs regarding framing of Law Commission for Jammu and Kashmir came up for discussion before the Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah this evening, one of the Congress Ministers from Jammu, who is always vociferous about Jammu issues, raised objection to the certain points in the proposal.
He pointed out that in the proposal the establishment of the Law Commission has been linked with Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. “There is already a controversy and heated debate over Article 370 of the Constitution and linking the establishment of Law Commission for J&K with this constitutional provision would amount to putting oil in the ongoing fire”, he remarked.
He was joined by several other Congress Ministers, who then collectively suggested that the Cabinet should not take in haste any such step which would create any other controversy especially when the Assembly elections are approaching and certain political parties are hell bent to raise this issue to further polarise the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said quoting the proceedings of the Cabinet.
According to the sources, the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs headed by National Conference Minister Mir Saifullah had mentioned in the proposal that Law Commission of Jammu and Kashmir would have jurisdiction to review those laws, which have been enacted by the State Legislature and those Central laws, which have been made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir in the light of Article 370, would not come under its review as for that Law Commission of India is already established.
“Linking Law Commission for J&K with Article 370 and mentioning that it would not review this provision of Constitution of India would generate another debate and become a tool at the hands of Opposition parties to exploit the sentiments of people in the State”, sources said quoting some Congress Ministers’ observation in the Cabinet.
Following protest from the Congress Ministers, the Cabinet deferred the framing of first ever Law Commission for indefinite period, sources informed, adding “some of the Congress Ministers even pointed out that there was no need to link the framing of Law Commission with Article 370 and only a simple proposal should have been placed before the Cabinet”.
“Now, the Law Commission will not be framed at least during the regime of present National Conference-Congress Coalition Government”, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the announcement regarding constitution of Law Commission for J&K was made by Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs about one and half years back and initially it remained victim of different observations of Finance, Law and Planning Departments.
The proposal in this regard was submitted to the Cabinet by the Law Department following approval to the creation of posts from the departments of Finance and Planning.
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