Ladakh’s Post-370 Status: Life as a Union Territory Without a Legislature

Our earlier article covered the Article 370 abrogation decision itself. This article focuses on a distinct, less-covered consequence of that decision: Ladakh’s status as a Union Territory administered directly from New Delhi with no legislature of its own, and the sustained, cross-community protest movement this arrangement has produced.

What Changed for Ladakh in 2019

When Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was abrogated in August 2019, the former state was reorganised into two separate union territories, Jammu and Kashmir with its own legislature, and Ladakh without one, meaning Ladakh’s governance runs directly through a centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor rather than through any elected local assembly with its own lawmaking powers, a structural difference from most of India’s states and even from the neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir union territory itself.

The Unusual Leh-Kargil Alliance

What makes Ladakh’s subsequent protest movement particularly notable is the alliance behind it. The Leh Apex Body, representing the Buddhist-majority Leh district, and the Kargil Democratic Alliance, representing the Muslim-majority Kargil district, historically had limited political cooperation given their different religious and cultural makeup, according to coverage by The Federal, but formed a joint front specifically to press shared demands regarding Ladakh’s governance status, an alliance Business Standard’s reporting described as a striking departure from the districts’ earlier, largely separate political trajectories.

Also read: Jammu & Kashmir Statehood: Status of the Restoration Promise

What the Joint Front Is Demanding

The Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance’s joint demands, according to Outlook India’s coverage, include full statehood for Ladakh, inclusion under the Constitution’s Sixth Schedule, which provides specific tribal autonomous-area protections and local self-governance powers, two Lok Sabha seats instead of the current single seat, and a dedicated Ladakh Public Service Commission to protect local government job opportunities for Ladakh’s own residents, demands that together reflect concerns about both political representation and protecting Ladakh’s distinct demographic and land character from outside pressure now that its earlier state-level special protections have ended.

The Government’s High-Powered Committee

In response to sustained pressure, the Centre formed a High-Powered Committee, chaired by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, specifically to negotiate with Ladakh’s representative groups. The committee has met repeatedly since 2023, including a session on February 19, 2024, focused specifically on the Sixth Schedule status question, according to The Week’s coverage, with further negotiating rounds continuing through 2025, including talks that resumed on October 22, 2025, according to News on Air’s reporting, and a separate Home Ministry-led meeting set for October 6, 2025, according to Deccan Herald’s coverage, indicating a sustained, multi-year negotiating process rather than a single resolved or abandoned engagement.

Sonam Wangchuk’s Hunger Strikes and the September 2025 Unrest

The movement gained particular national visibility through climate activist and engineer Sonam Wangchuk’s repeated hunger strikes pressing Ladakh’s cause, including a prominent fast that began on September 10, 2025. Deccan Herald’s coverage documented that violent protests subsequently broke out in Leh on September 24-25, 2025, resulting in deaths and a period of detention for Wangchuk under regional security provisions, a serious escalation that underscored how deeply the underlying governance grievances had built up over the preceding six years. The strike ultimately ended after the Home Ministry assured Ladakh’s representative groups of a further meeting scheduled for December 3, 2025, according to the same Deccan Herald reporting.

Where Things Currently Stand

As of the most recent available reporting, talks between the Centre and Ladakh’s joint representative groups remain ongoing without a final, comprehensive resolution. Tibetan Review’s coverage, headlined “New Delhi rejects Ladakh’s statehood demand,” indicates the government has continued resisting the specific demand for full statehood, even while continuing to engage on related questions around Sixth Schedule-style protections and local job safeguards, meaning the underlying tension between Ladakh’s post-370 union-territory status and its residents’ demand for greater self-governance remains a live, unresolved issue rather than one the multi-year negotiating process has fully settled either way.

Why Ladakh’s Case Differs From Jammu and Kashmir’s

It’s worth noting how Ladakh’s situation differs from the neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir union territory covered in our earlier article: while Jammu and Kashmir at least retains its own elected legislature and Chief Minister, giving it some direct local lawmaking voice even without full statehood, Ladakh has neither, leaving all legislative and most administrative authority concentrated in the centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor’s office, a genuinely more limited local self-governance arrangement than either its pre-2019 status as part of the former state or its neighbouring union territory’s current arrangement, which is precisely the specific grievance driving the Leh-Kargil joint movement’s demands.

Bottom Line

Since Article 370’s 2019 abrogation, Ladakh has functioned as a Union Territory without its own legislature, a distinct governance arrangement that produced an unusual joint protest alliance between Leh’s Buddhist-majority and Kargil’s Muslim-majority representative bodies demanding statehood, Sixth Schedule protections, expanded Lok Sabha representation, and local job safeguards, a movement that escalated into serious unrest and hunger strikes through 2025 even as the Centre’s High-Powered Committee has continued years of negotiation without the core statehood demand being resolved in the protesters’ favour as of the most recent reporting.

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Abhyudaya Verma