The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the Union Territory’s Lieutenant Governor can nominate five members to the J&K Legislative Assembly without requiring the government’s “aid and advice,” adding that the office of the Lieutenant Governor is not an extension of the elected government.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has informed the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the nomination of five members to the J&K Legislative Assembly lies “outside the realm of the business of the elected government of J&K.”
In its affidavit, the Ministry said that once Parliament, by law, recognises the Lieutenant Governor as a distinct authority from the government of the Union Territory, it follows that any power conferred upon the Lieutenant Governor must be exercised as a statutory function, not as an extension of his role as the head of the UT government.
“There can be no manner of doubt that it is the Lieutenant Governor who has to exercise this statutory duty in his discretion, as a statutory functionary and not as an extension of the government — thus, without aid and advice,” the MHA stated. (Agencies)
