The Lieutenant Governor would be the final authority on laws passed by Ladakh's proposed Union Territory-level elected body, according to the Centre's 32-page proposal document accessed by The Hindu. Responding to a question on how the UT-level body's decisions would come into force, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) wrote in the document, titled “Constitutional and Statutory Framework”, that any ordinance (law) passed by a UT-level body would go to the Governor and come into force after his assent, The Hindu reported.

Source: The Hindu

The proposal would create an elected body for the Union Territory through a new constitutional provision under Article 371, in a proposed Chapter ‘K’ of the Constitution. The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) are part of the High Powered Committee set up by the Centre in 2023 to ensure constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, which became a Union Territory after the abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, The Hindu said.

Source: The Hindu

32 pageslength of the MHA's “Constitutional and Statutory Framework” document
Article 371, Chapter ‘K’proposed constitutional route for a Ladakh elected body
May 22 & Sep 9MHA meetings with LAB and KDA in Delhi this year
Oct 22next round of negotiations, per Ladakhi representatives

Key design questions are still open in the document itself. It asks whether delimitation of constituencies for the proposed body will be done by the election authority or a delimitation commission, and whether it should be based on population alone or on population and area in ratios such as 50-50, 60-40 or 40-60, or on population, panchayat boundaries, seasonal unavailability, administrative boundaries and public convenience. It also raises whether the electoral rolls should be the local-body rolls or the Lok Sabha rolls, The Hindu reported.

Source: The Hindu

The two Ladakhi bodies have already rejected the MHA draft. In a joint statement after sub-committee talks in Leh, LAB and KDA said the draft “represents a significant departure” from assurances made in earlier meetings, fails to address their demand for a legislative assembly and Article 371 safeguards tailored to Ladakh, and instead proposes what they called a NEFA-type arrangement, falling far short of the Union Territory-with-legislature minimum they say was agreed on May 22, 2026. That is the groups' stated position, as reported from Srinagar.

Source: 7Globe (LAB/KDA joint statement)

LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjey accused the MHA of backtracking and said the two bodies were not ready to discuss the proposals and would continue their agitation until Ladakh is granted a UT-level elected legislative body with meaningful powers and constitutional safeguards under Article 371(K), Mirror Now reported in its account of the rejection.

Source: Mirror Now

The next meeting between the MHA panel and the Ladakhi representatives has been scheduled for October 22 in Delhi, according to the representatives, 7Globe reported. The Centre has not, in the reports cited here, announced a final decision on the body's powers.

Sources: The Hindu, 7Globe, Mirror Now.