President Droupadi Murmu has amended the rules governing the Inter-State Council to allow the lieutenant governors of Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi to participate in the council meetings when President's rule is imposed these Union territories.
The amendment, notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 9 and published on Friday, amends the Inter-State Council Order, 1990, which had established the council.
According to the May 1990 order, the council consists of the prime minister, chief ministers of all states, specified Union Territory representatives, and six Union ministers of Cabinet rank.
Its proviso, introduced in July that year, addressed the attendance of a governor when a proclamation under Article 356 was in force in their respective states, or when the order issued by the governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under section 92 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was in force.
In 2019, Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, after Article 370 was abrogated.
The 2026 order replaces that July 1990 proviso with a four-part provision.It retains the provision for a state under Article 356, specifying that "the governor of that state shall be invited to attend the meetings of the Council." It then adds three provisions covering Union territories with assemblies.
The amendment provides for the lieutenant governor's participation in the council meetings when the president's rule is imposed under the respective provisions of the laws governing the three Union Territories with assemblies -- Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, and the NCT of Delhi.
For Puducherry, it provides that when an order under Section 51 of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, is in force, "the lieutenant governor of the Union territory of Puducherry shall be invited to attend the meetings of the council." "Where an order issued by the president under section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) in relation to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is in force, the Lieutenant Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be invited to attend the meetings of the council," it said.
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi will be invited when an order under Article 239 AB is in force, it said.
President's rule is imposed when there is a failure of the Constitutional machinery in a state or a Union territory.
