Just before the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was due to take up a resolution calling for the restoration of statehood, the Speaker was informed by senior bureaucrats that the matter was sub judice and should therefore not be discussed in the House.
Chief Secretary Atal Duloo and Law Secretary Achal Sethi conveyed their objections through separate communications to the Assembly Secretariat. The letters came three days after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah introduced the resolution, which was subsequently admitted for discussion.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather told NDTV that he was not aware of any previous instance where bureaucrats had intervened in the Assembly's proceedings in this manner. He said the decision to write to the Assembly Secretariat without obtaining the concerned minister's approval raised questions over an attempt to interfere with the House's functioning.
"I don't think there is any precedent, bureaucracy writing to the Assembly secretariat to scuttle the business of the house. That too without the approval of minister concerned," he said.
Abdullah, who is also the Law Minister, said he was not aware that the officials had sent such communications and learned about them only after the Assembly Secretariat brought the matter to his attention. According to him, the episode highlighted the implications of Jammu and Kashmir continuing without full statehood.
Addressing the Assembly before it adopted the resolution, with BJP members walking out of the House, Abdullah questioned why the bureaucracy had issued an opinion on a matter that he himself had introduced.
"Speaker sir, 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. I do not know on whose instructions it was sent,'' said Abdullah.
The Chief Minister also said that the loss of statehood and special status had left people feeling "humiliated", adding that the demand for the restoration of statehood was rooted in what he described as a matter of right.
"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. And this itself shows the reality of the situation,'' Abdullah said.
