MLA Pathania lampoons Omar Sarkar over introduction of Land Grants Amendment Bill

Jammu, Apr 01: Launching a forceful and meticulously argued intervention in the Assembly, senior BJP leader and MLA Ranbir Singh Pathania on Wednesday mounted a direct constitutional challenge to the proposed J&K Land Grants (Restoration and Protection) Bill, 2025, warning that the legislation strikes at the very core of the post-reorganisation legal order in the Union Territory.
Speaking during discussions on Private Members’ Bills, Pathania questioned both the legal foundation and legislative competence behind the proposed measure, describing it as an attempt to reopen a framework that had been conclusively settled by Parliament through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
In a speech marked by sharp phrasing and sustained emphasis, he argued that the Union Territory’s legislative architecture now flows directly from the Constitution of India, leaving little room for any reversal of post-2019 statutory arrangements through what he termed “indirect legislative manoeuvres.”
Pathania underscored that parliamentary supremacy cannot be diluted by a Private Member’s Bill seeking to unsettle an existing statutory regime. He took particular exception to provisions in the Bill that propose to declare the 2022 Rules “void ab initio”, calling it a clear instance of legislative overreach that falls outside the competence of the Assembly.
He further cautioned that reverting to older frameworks, including those predating 2019, would not only create legal ambiguity but also introduce uneven standards in governance. Such a rollback, he argued, risks opening the door to conflicting interpretations of law in a system that has, since reorganisation, been anchored in uniform constitutional principles.
“Once Parliament has spoken, the constitutional scheme does not permit its reversal through indirect or colourable legislation,” Pathania asserted, framing the issue as one that goes beyond policy disagreement and touches upon the limits of legislative authority.
Turning his critique towards the government, the BJP legislator accused it of selectively advancing legislation. He alleged that while several proposals are routinely held back, the Land Grants Bill had been allowed to move forward with unusual ease, suggesting a deliberate political calculation.
Pathania also raised concerns over the underlying intent of the Bill, alleging that it seeks to validate past allocations of government land at concessional rates to a limited set of beneficiaries. He argued that such a move reflects a deeper conflict of interest and raises questions about the government’s credibility.
His intervention appeared to put the treasury benches on the defensive, as the debate quickly expanded beyond the specifics of the Bill to larger questions about constitutional limits, legislative propriety, and the continuity of legal frameworks in Jammu and Kashmir after its reorganisation.
With positions hardening across the aisle, the proposed legislation is likely to witness further scrutiny, both inside the House and beyond, as its legal and political implications continue to unfold.