The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2026, as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the proposed changes were aimed at removing ambiguities in the existing law rather than creating confusions.Replying to the debate on the Bill, CM Omar said the government intended to hold Panchayat elections but stopped short of giving a timeline, telling BJP MLA R S Pathania that the polls would be held at the “right time”.
The CM drew a parallel with the BJP’s position on restoration of statehood, saying, “Our intention to hold the Panychayat Election is same as that of your intention to return the statehood.”
He said the government’s intention to hold Panchayat elections was clear and the polls would be held at an "appropriate time".
The remarks echoed the BJP’s repeated position that statehood would be restored at an “appropriate time.”
Turning to the legislation, CM Omar said there was no intention to create confusion through the amendments but rather to resolve inconsistencies in the Municipal Act, 2000.
He pointed to a discrepancy concerning the minimum number of elected members in a municipal body.
While Section 10(1) provides that no municipal body should have fewer than seven members, a table under the act mentions five members for municipal areas having a population below 5000.
“This is the confusion. Whether it will be seven or five,” the CM said.
He said the Bill seeks to remove the reference to five members, thereby making seven the minimum strength for municipal bodies and resolving the contradiction between the two provisions.
CM Omar said the second major amendment relates to the authority responsible for municipal ward delimitation.
He said the process of dividing municipal areas, determining wards, and fixing their territorial extent had, in practice, been undertaken by the Deputy Commissioner and the district administration.
The CM said the existing law contained references to the Deputy Commissioner as well as the Chief Election Officer (CEO), creating uncertainty over which authority would undertake the delimitation exercise.
“We removed the State Election Officer because in our experience, this work was done by the DC and his team,” he said.
CM Omar said the amendment would remove the reference to the Chief Election Officer and make it clear that the exercise would be undertaken by the Deputy Commissioner or another officer authorised by the government.
He rejected suggestions that the government was attempting to assume additional powers through the amendments, saying the changes were limited to removing legal ambiguity.
“We have not given powers to ourselves,” the CM said.
He also opposed referring the Bill to a committee, arguing that the proposed changes were minor and intended only to clarify the existing provisions.
“A simple bill has been brought to House and if we send this to the committee, then all the work will go to the committee,” CM Omar said.
He urged members to support the amendments so that the government could proceed with the municipal election-related process without ambiguity.
The Assembly later passed the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2026.