Chief Secretary, Law Secretary Write Against J&K Statehood Resolution

VoM News Desk | September 28, 2026 | 11:23 PM IST | Breaking News | Follow on Google News

Chief Secretary, Law Secretary Write Against J&K Statehood Resolution

SRINAGAR, September 28, 2026 [VoM News]: Hours before the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly began discussing the resolution seeking restoration of full statehood, two senior bureaucrats wrote separately to the Assembly Secretariat arguing that the matter was sub judice and the resolution should not be taken up.

Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Commissioner/Secretary, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Achal Sethi, sent the communications three days after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah moved the statehood resolution and it was admitted by the House.

Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather questioned the move, saying he was unaware of any precedent in which the bureaucracy had written to the Assembly Secretariat seeking to prevent consideration of business already admitted by the House.

“I don’t think there is any precedent, bureaucracy writing to the Assembly secretariat to scuttle the business of the House,” Rather told NDTV. He also questioned the communication being sent without approval from the minister concerned.

Omar Abdullah, who also holds the Law portfolio, told the Assembly that he had not been informed about the communication before the Assembly Secretariat brought it to his notice.

“I’m the Law Minister and also Chief Minister but I have no knowledge of my bureaucracy sending an opinion to you on my resolution,” Abdullah told the Speaker, adding that he did not know on whose instructions the communication had been sent.

The Chief Minister cited the episode while arguing for restoration of full statehood, saying such a situation reflected the administrative limitations of Jammu and Kashmir’s present Union Territory status.

“Can this happen in any state, where the chief minister moves a resolution and its own bureaucracy acts against it? This can happen only in a Union Territory,” Abdullah said.

The Assembly subsequently passed the resolution seeking restoration of full statehood amid a walkout by BJP legislators. The BJP has supported restoration of statehood but strongly opposed the resolution’s reference to the Assembly’s 2000 autonomy resolution.

VoM News Desk

VoM News is an online web portal in jammu Kashmir offers regional, National & global news.