Five Kargil councillors move J&K HC against Ladakh L-G order which nominated a Muslim to the council

Five councillors of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) have moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court against the Ladakh Lieutenant Governor’s order to nominate a member of the Muslim community to the council. The petitioners have urged that the L-G’s order be quashed as the seat is reserved for a member of the “principle religious minority” from the region and Buddhists, not Muslims, are the largest minority group in Kargil.

Four of the five petitioners — Mohd Jaffer Akhoon, the chairman of LAHDC, Kargil from the National Conference (NC), and executive councillors Kacho Mohammad Feroz, Aga Syeed Mujtaba Mussavi and Zakir Hussain — are Muslims. The fifth petitioner, Punchok Tashi, also an executive councillor, is a Buddhist.

Ladakh has two districts — the Buddhist-dominated Leh and the predominantly Muslim Kargil.

The Kargil hill council has 30 seats. Out of the 26 contested seats, in 2023, the National Conference won 12 seats, Congress-10, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Independents-two each.

On November, 12, L-G Kavinder Gupta nominated Reyaz Ahmed Khan, an advocate as the fourth nominated member of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil. The other three members were nominated in 2024.

The order said that the nomination was made under the powers conferred by Section 4 (2) of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act, 1997

“The Government may nominate not more than four persons from amongst the principal religious minorities and women in the district to be members of the Council,” the said section says.

The petitioners have argued that nomination can only be made of a person either belonging to the principal religious minority community of the district or a woman to ensure minority representation in the Council.

The petition said that as per the 2011 census, it being the last census carried out, about 77% of the people of Kargil are adherents of the Islamic Faith and that about 14.29% of the population are followers of Buddhist religion, whereas 7.34% are Hindus by faith.

“That given the fact that in the District of Kargil about 77% of the people are Muslims thus the religion of the majority of district Kargil is Islam and the principal religious minority is that of Buddhists, and therefore, the nomination as countenanced under Section 4(2) of LAHDC Act, 1997, in so far as it pertains to District Kargil cannot be of a person belonging to Islamic faith and has to be of a person adhering to the Buddhist faith,” the petition said. In 2024, the three members who were nominated to the Kargil hill council were two Buddhists and a woman- Namgyal Phontsok, Rigzin Gurmat, Hakeema Khatoon

The petition said that the nominated member, Reyaz Ahmed Khan, had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 hill council election “on the ticket of a national political party which is also the party in power at the Union/Centre and thus also being in direct control of the affairs of Union Territory of Ladakh.”