Question

What was pre 1953 kashmir administration?

Answer 1

Asserting that “a pure and simple return to the pre-1953 situation” would “create a dangerous constitutional vacuum” in the relationship between the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir, the Group of Interlocutors appointed by the UPA government to identify the political contours of a solution to the problems of the State has recommended instead a “case-by-case review of all Central laws and Articles of the Constitution of India extended to the State” since 1952.

The group's final report, ‘A New Compact with the People of Jammu and Kashmir' — a copy of which is with The Hindu — is likely to be made public after the Cabinet Committee on Security clears its release on Thursday. The report proposes the setting up of a Constitutional Committee that would review the applicability of Central statutes extended to Jammu and Kashmir after the July 1952 Delhi Agreement. The review process — once ratified by Parliament and the State legislature — would eventually end the extension by presidential order of further Central laws to the State.

One of the key recommendations of the report is that Parliament will make no new laws applicable to Jammu and Kashmir unless these relate to the country's internal and external security and its vital economic interest.





However, the group members believed that many of the Central laws made applicable to the State over the past six decades “should not give rise to any strong objections” as these were “fairly innocuous laws that have been beneficial to the State and its people.”

The group, chaired by Dileep Padgaonkar, and including Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari, submitted its report to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram last year.

The report said the search for a solution in J&K should not be made contingent on India-Pakistan talks. “If the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir are willing to enter into a settlement, the door can always be kept open for Pakistan to join.” The key objective, it added, was to make the Line of Control irrelevant. “It should become a symbol of Concord and Cooperation.”

A hassle-free movement of people, goods and services across the LoC and the International Border must be swiftly ensured leading to institutionalised cooperation between the two parts of the former princely State. Another recommendation was to take all appropriate measures to regard J&K as a bridge between South and Central Asia.

In its suggestion for harmonisation of relations across the LoC, the report noted that no permanent solution can be achieved unless it applied to those parts of the former princely State that were now under Pakistani administration. “Any attempt at harmonisation of Centre-State relations and devolution of powers at the regional, district and panchayat/municipality levels across the LoC, therefore, will necessitate wide-ranging constitutional change in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir. If agreed, such harmonisation will permit the development of joint institutions across the LoC for development, resource generation and other common matters,” the group said, and recommended that these issues be discussed with the representatives on the other side of the LoC.

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* Among other recommendations were to replace the word “Temporary” from the heading of Article 370 with the word “Special” as has been used for other States under Article 371, to appoint the Governor from a list of names prepared by the State Government in consultation with opposition parties, to hold fresh election within three months if Article 356 is used. As the action of the Governor in the use of Article 356 was now justiciable, it suggested that the present arrangement on its use should continue.

* Three Regional Councils, one each for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, would be created with Ladakh no longer a division of Kashmir. The proportion of officers from the All India Services would be gradually reduced in favour of officers from the State civil service.