Ladakh Apex Body warns of bigger agitation ahead of talks with MHA on September 9
The Leh Apex Body (LAB) has indicated it may intensify its agitation if talks with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), scheduled for September 9 in New Delhi, do not yield concrete progress on Ladakh's long-pending demands.
The proposed Kargil-Leh padyatra has been postponed for now to allow space for the scheduled dialogue.
Key demands include constitutional and legislative safeguards for Ladakh, withdrawal of cases linked to violence that occurred around September 24 of the previous year, compensation for affected persons, and publication of the inquiry commission report into that incident.
The talks form part of an ongoing dialogue process between the Centre and Ladakhi representative bodies that has continued intermittently since the region's reorganisation as a Union Territory.
Sixth Schedule (Article 244(2)) and Ladakh's Demand for Inclusion
The Sixth Schedule, read with Article 244(2) of the Constitution, provides for special administrative arrangements in tribal areas through Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) that exercise legislative, executive, judicial, and financial powers over specified subjects such as land, forests, and local customs.
Key Details
- Article 244(2) currently extends Sixth Schedule protection to tribal areas within the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram; examples of ADCs include the Bodoland Territorial Council and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council in Assam.
- Ladakh is not currently covered by the Sixth Schedule; extending it would require a constitutional amendment, since the Schedule presently names only four States and Ladakh is a Union Territory.
- Ladakhi bodies have sought Sixth Schedule-type safeguards because Ladakh has an overwhelmingly tribal population (Scheduled Tribes form the large majority in the region), and they wish to protect land, employment, and cultural identity from external pressures.
Sixth Schedule inclusion (or an equivalent constitutional safeguard) is a central, recurring demand at the heart of the LAB's dialogue with the MHA, since Ladakh currently lacks the legislative protections that Sixth Schedule tribal areas enjoy elsewhere in the country.
Union Territory Status of Ladakh Post-Reorganisation
Ladakh was carved out as a separate Union Territory without a legislature under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, coming into existence on October 31, 2019, following the reorganisation of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Key Details
- Ladakh is administered by the President, acting through a Lieutenant Governor appointed under Article 239 of the Constitution.
- Under Article 240, the President may make regulations for the "peace, progress and good government" of Ladakh, which can have the same force as an Act of Parliament for the Union Territory.
- Unlike the neighbouring Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (which retains a legislative assembly), Ladakh has no elected legislature of its own, a key point behind demands for greater legislative representation and safeguards.
- Prior to 2019, Ladakh's residents held constitutional protections under Articles 370 and 35A as part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir; the demand for safeguards intensified after these provisions were revoked.
The absence of a legislature and the loss of prior constitutional protections underpin the LAB's demand for legislative safeguards, which is a core agenda item for the September 9 talks with the MHA.
- Scheduled talks date: September 9, in New Delhi, between Ladakhi representative bodies and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Ladakh became a Union Territory (without legislature) on October 31, 2019, under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
- Sixth Schedule (Article 244(2)) currently applies to tribal areas in four States only: Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
- Ladakh administered under Articles 239 (Lieutenant Governor) and 240 (Presidential regulations) of the Constitution.