New Delhi, 18th March 2023: Achal Sethi, the law secretary for the J&K Government, has denied Asim Suhas Sarode’s assertions in his 2020 affidavit that the union territories do not have various state commissions that were disbanded with the repeal of Article 370.

Many commissions were abolished, including the State Human Rights Commission, the State Commission for the Protection of Women’s and Children’s Rights, the State Information Commission, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, and three additional commissions.

The affidavit claimed that the J&K administration issued various government orders to dissolve these commissions and that the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory now falls under the same federal rules that did not previously apply to the erstwhile state of J&K.

Accordingly, several commissions have been created under the laws that have been made applicable to the Union Territory, and in some cases, the Centre has been given the authority to create state commissions. In other cases, central commissions that have already been established under central law serve as the commission for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The document cites seven commissions that are now in operation, including the Central Vigilance Commission, and asks the Supreme Court to reject the writ petition and the request for temporary relief.