‘Will be compelled to launch large-scale agitation’: Sonam Wangchuk ahead of Ladakh talks with Centre
Fresh talks between representative bodies from Ladakh and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs were scheduled for September 9 in New Delhi, under the ongoing dialogue process on Ladakh's constitutional status.
The core agenda includes constitutional safeguards for land, employment and cultural identity (on the model of the Sixth Schedule or comparable provisions such as Article 371), statehood, and separate Lok Sabha representation for the Leh and Kargil districts.
The talks follow unrest in Leh in September 2025, in which several people died during protests linked to the same set of demands; related demands now also include withdrawal of cases connected to that unrest, compensation for those affected, and publication of the inquiry commission's findings.
The dialogue process operates through a High Powered Committee constituted by the Union Home Ministry specifically to examine Ladakh's demands.
The High Powered Committee (HPC) for Ladakh
The High Powered Committee is a dedicated Union government mechanism, distinct from a statutory or constitutional body, set up specifically to negotiate and examine Ladakh's demands following its reorganisation as a Union Territory. It represents the institutional channel through which the Centre and Ladakhi stakeholders have engaged since 2023.
Key Details
- Constituted on 2 January 2023 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by a Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, with the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, the Lok Sabha MP from Ladakh, the Chairpersons/Chief Executive Councillors of the Leh and Kargil Hill Councils, and senior MHA officials as members.
- The HPC was reconstituted on 30 November 2023 after objections over its original composition and mandate; its first meeting under the reconstituted format was held on 4 December 2023.
- Its mandate covers safeguards for land and employment for the people of Ladakh, and has since expanded in practice to cover the broader four-point agenda of statehood, Sixth Schedule-type protection, separate parliamentary seats for Leh and Kargil, and a public service commission for local recruitment.
- The HPC is a negotiating and advisory forum; it has no power to itself grant Sixth Schedule status or statehood, both of which would require Parliamentary/constitutional action.
The September 9 talks are the latest round within this HPC-anchored process, which has continued intermittently since January 2023 without a final resolution on the core demands.
How Existing Sixth Schedule Autonomous District Councils Work
The Sixth Schedule (Articles 244(2) and 275(1)) currently applies only to tribal areas within Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, where it creates Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) — and, where multiple tribes coexist within a district, further Autonomous Regional Councils — with defined legislative, executive, financial and limited judicial powers.
Key Details
- There are 10 ADCs/Regional Councils under the Sixth Schedule, each with up to 30 members (up to 26 elected for a 5-year term, up to 4 nominated by the Governor).
- ADCs can make laws on subjects such as land allotment and use (other than land acquired for public purposes), management of forests other than reserved forests, regulation of shifting cultivation, appointment of traditional chiefs/headmen, inheritance of property, marriage and social customs, and can constitute village and district councils for administering justice in matters involving members of Scheduled Tribes.
- ADCs can also assess and collect land revenue and impose certain taxes, subject to the Governor's assent for many categories of law.
- The Governor is empowered to organise, reorganise, alter the boundaries of, or dissolve autonomous districts and regions, and to make regulations for their administration.
Ladakhi bodies point to this ADC framework — decision-making power over land, resources and local customs vested in a locally elected body — as the specific type of protection they seek, distinct from Ladakh's current status as a Union Territory administered directly by a Lieutenant Governor with no elected legislature of its own.
Fifth Schedule vs Sixth Schedule — Why the Distinction Matters for Ladakh
India's Constitution provides two separate special-area frameworks for tribal regions: the Fifth Schedule (Article 244(1)), which applies to "Scheduled Areas" mostly in central Indian states and works through Tribes Advisory Councils and Governor's discretionary powers without a separate elected council, and the Sixth Schedule (Article 244(2)), which applies only to the four named northeastern States and creates directly elected Autonomous District Councils with law-making powers.
Key Details
- The Sixth Schedule offers a materially stronger form of self-governance than the Fifth Schedule because it creates an elected legislative-cum-executive body (the ADC) rather than only an advisory council.
- Because the Sixth Schedule presently names only Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, extending it to Ladakh (a Union Territory, not one of these four States) would require a constitutional amendment to the Schedule itself, not merely an executive order.
- Ladakh has a predominantly Scheduled Tribe population, which is the demographic basis cited for seeking tribal-area safeguards, though it is neither a Fifth Schedule Scheduled Area nor a Sixth Schedule tribal area under the Constitution's current text.
This distinction explains why Ladakhi representative bodies specifically invoke the Sixth Schedule model (elected council with real legislative power) rather than Fifth Schedule-style protections, and why the demand is, in constitutional terms, more complex to grant than an executive decision.
- High Powered Committee for Ladakh: constituted 2 January 2023 by the Union Home Ministry; reconstituted 30 November 2023; first meeting under new format 4 December 2023.
- Sixth Schedule (Articles 244(2), 275(1)) currently applies to: Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram — 10 Autonomous District/Regional Councils in total, each with up to 30 members.
- Ladakh became a Union Territory without a legislature on 31 October 2019, under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, administered by a Lieutenant Governor under Articles 239/240.
- Leh unrest: violence in September 2025 during protests over the same set of demands resulted in several deaths and led to a temporary halt in dialogue.
- Fresh round of Centre-Ladakh talks scheduled for 9 September, in New Delhi.