The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (Act No. 34 of 2019) is an Act of the Indian Parliament that fundamentally altered the constitutional and territorial status of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Act was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2019, passed by the Lok Sabha on August 6, 2019, received the President's assent on August 9, 2019, and became effective on October 31, 2019.
The Act's primary purpose was to reorganize the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir into two new Union Territories (UTs): the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh. This reorganization was preceded by a Presidential Order (C.O. 272) that effectively rendered Article 370 of the Constitution inoperative, thereby revoking the special status and separate constitution previously enjoyed by the state. The Act, consisting of 103 clauses divided into 14 parts, solved the problem of integrating the region fully into the Union of India by making all provisions of the Indian Constitution applicable.
The mechanism of the Act bifurcated the state, with the UT of Ladakh comprising the districts of Leh and Kargil and being administered without a legislature. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir comprises the remaining territories and is governed under Article 239A of the Constitution, which provides for a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers headed by a Chief Minister. However, the Legislative Assembly's power is restricted, as it cannot make laws concerning "Public Order" and "Police," which remain with the Union government. The Act also abolished the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council and extended 106 central laws to the new UTs while repealing 153 state laws.
The Act connects directly to the abrogation of Article 370 and the repeal of Article 35A, which had granted exclusive rights to permanent residents over land ownership and public employment. The Act has been recently amended by the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which increased the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from 83 to 90 and introduced reservations for Scheduled Tribes. The Supreme Court of India, in Union of India v. Shah Faesal (2023), upheld the constitutional validity of the Act and the abrogation of Article 370.