Business Rules for J&K: 3-member cabinet panel prepares draft

Srinagar, Dec 21: The cabinet sub-committee, constituted by the National Conference-led government, has prepared a draft of business rules, which is currently under discussion, sources said.
Sources said that the CSC, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary and comprising Ministers Javed Rana and Sakeena Itoo, has developed the draft of business rules, and it is being discussed at various levels.
According to sources, the CSC has examined the business rules that were in effect in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as the Transaction of Business of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019, which were unveiled by the Union Home Ministry in 2020, along with subsequent amendments made in 2023 and 2024.
Two of the three ministers on the CSC, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the work of the CSC is in its final stages and that it would soon submit its report to the cabinet. “The cabinet sub-committee is expected to meet again soon to finalize its recommendations,” they said, adding that the CSC has only met once.
According to the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the Lieutenant Governor must make business rules on the advice of the council of ministers. As per Section 55 of the Act, the Lieutenant Governor shall make rules on the advice of the Council of Ministers for the allocation of business to the Ministers and for the more convenient transaction of business with the Ministers, including the procedure to be adopted in case of a difference of opinion between the Lieutenant Governor and the Council of Ministers or a Minister.
A senior bureaucrat said that the Union Government framed business rules for Jammu & Kashmir in 2020 by invoking the proclamation dated October 31, 2019, issued under Section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. “Under the Proclamation, the President of India assumed all the powers and functions of the government of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and all powers vested in or exercisable by the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The said proclamation also suspended Section 55 of the Reorganisation Act to the extent of acting on the advice of the council of ministers,” he said.