Signed in July, Drafted in October: How Ladakh's Promised Legislature Became an Article 240 Regulation-Maker

An Article in the Constitution, a Body

Designed by Regulation The documents released in Leh on 22 October show where the Ladakh negotiations broke down. In the minutes signed on 3 July 2026, the two sides recorded a unanimous decision to create a customised UT-level body with executive, financial and legislative powers, protected through a proposed Article 371K.

The MHA draft of 15 October keeps the Article number. What it changes is where the body's powers would come from.

The rule as drafted:

a constitutional shell with executive contents The draft works in two steps:

• Article 371K would give the body constitutional recognition.
• A Presidential regulation under Article 240 would then set out its composition, elections, functions and powers. Article 240 lets the President make regulations for the "peace, progress and good government" of certain Union Territories. Such regulations have the force of an Act of Parliament, but they are made by the executive. That second step is decisive. The Constitution would guarantee that the body exists. What it can actually do would sit in an instrument the Union executive writes and can rewrite. According to the released documents, the draft adds further limits:
• Every regulation the body makes takes effect only after the Lieutenant Governor's assent.
• The L-G can remove members for conviction, insolvency, incapacity or conflict of interest.
• The Union can issue directions to the body.
• The body's regulations would not affect the powers of Parliament, the courts, the Central government or the Administrator.
• It has no general competence over the State List. Its subjects are a short list (land, community land, culture, forests other than reserved forests, environmental and conservation planning, budget-making), which Ladakh's leaders say the hill councils already largely handle.

The rule as negotiated:

what fell out between July and October Three things in the July minutes do not appear in the draft.

• Legislation became regulation. "Legislative powers" were replaced by a power to make regulations, each subject to a veto.
• Control of officers went missing. The minutes placed supervision of officers, including their annual performance reports, with the elected executive. The draft instead creates a Chief Executive Secretary to head the body's secretariat.
• No consent clause. Ladakh wants an Article 371A-style shield: Acts of Parliament on land, domicile, jobs, education, culture and language would apply only if the body agreed. The draft keeps all Central laws in force and says nothing of consent. The comparison with Puducherry sharpens the point. Under Article 239A, Puducherry's Assembly makes laws and its L-G generally acts on the aid and advice of elected ministers. The Ladakh draft offers neither law-making nor aid and advice.

The second question:

whose mandate? A new Leh group, the Civil Society Forum of Ladakh, says the original agenda has been hijacked. It claims the talks are dominated by Sonam Wangchuk and the Kargil Democratic Alliance at the cost of the districts and the Buddhist community. It wants panchayat polls and stronger hill councils in the meantime. The Centre now faces a Ladakh that disagrees with itself as well as with New Delhi.