Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea against LG's power to nominate 5 MLAs to J&K Assembly

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging the power vested on the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Jammu and Kashmir to nominate 5 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and PV Sanjay Kumar said it was not inclined to entertain the matter and asked the petitioner to first approach the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

"In many cases where we have entertained at first instance (bypassing High Court), we see many things get left out," the Court remarked.

This was after Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for petitioner Ravinder Kumar Sharma said that such nomination by unelected LG can throttle the electoral verdict.

The J&K assembly has 90 elected members. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 envisages nomination of 5 more MLAs by the LG to represent the displaced Kashmiri people and those from Pak Occupied Kashmir.

This raises the majority mark in the assembly from 45 to 48.

In the recently concluded assembly elections, the INDIA coalition of J&K National Conference, Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) secured 49 seats in the assembly putting them above the majority mark of 48 even in case of nomination of 5 members.