Governance
However , Sheikh Abdullah , who enjoyed absolute power , institutionalised the hegemony through arbitrary allotment of seats among the three regions of the State when the Constituent Assembly was convened in 1951 . The elections were held arbitrarily without any formal authority to conduct elections and women were debarred from enrolling as voters . A total of 100 seats were delineated for the Constituent Assembly . While 25 seats were reserved for the residents of Pak-occupied areas ( POJK ), elections were held for the remaining 75 seats . There was no delimitation done , nor any yardsticks were laid down for the distribution of seats to the three different regions of the State . The figure of 75 was also borrowed from the Maharaja to whom goes the credit of establishing in 1934 the first elected legislature known as Prajasabha , which had 75 members ( both elected and nominated , including the members of the Maharaja ’ s Cabinet ). Out of the 75 seats for which elections were to be held to elect the Constituent Assembly , 40 were allotted to Kashmir , 33 to Jammu and two to Ladakh .
To ensure control of the legislature , Sheikh Abdullah played this fraud with the people of Jammu and Ladakh , ignoring the basic principle of proportional representation since Jammu had larger area
34 Legacy India | June 2019 and almost equal population with Kashmir . Though Ladakh had the largest area , it was sparsely populated . Jammu Praja Parishad , a political party in Jammu , objected to the discrimination and boycotted the elections . The National
Conference ( NC ) won all 75 seats and Sheikh Abdullah was elected as the Prime Minister of the State . The last session of the Constituent Assembly was held on January 25 , 1957 , and the new Constitution came into force from January 26 . A bicameral Legislature was envisaged for the State .
Meanwhile , a delimitation commission was constituted in India in 1952 . However , J & K has not constituted a single commission till date while the rest of the country has benefitted on four occasions so far . In J & K , delimitation has been done only once in 1995 , ordered by the then Governor Gen KV Krishna Rao . Delimitation Commission is tasked with redrawing boundaries of various Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies based on the last Census of 2011 . In view of Article 370 ,
the Delimitation Commission ordered by the Government of India does not have jurisdiction over J & K . But no such commission has been ordered by the State Government as well for obvious reasons .
Till 1988 , the strength of the Assembly continued to be 100 with 75 elected members . The number was increased to 111 vide the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir ( 20th Amendment ) Act of 1988 . Of these , 24 seats are designated for areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan and remain officially vacant as per section 48 of the Constitution and are not taken into account for voting and deciding quorum of the House . Elections are , thus , held for 87 seats , of which Kashmir has the majority share of 46 seats , Jammu 37 seats and Ladakh four seats . Once
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