J&K Law Secretary’s letter to Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, saying that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah‘s resolution for immediate restoration of full statehood is sub-judice and should be disallowed, echoed in the Assembly on Tuesday, with a Congress legislator calling it a matter of bureaucratic overreach.

Bandipora MLA Nizamu-ud-din Bhat said it overrides the powers of the Speaker and asked whether the House is a “Legislative Assembly or a Panchayat”.

The letter written by the Law Secretary was routed to the Speaker through the Chief Secretary.

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“The Chief Secretary and the Law Secretary have written a letter, advising against the resolution. This challenges the powers of the Speaker and the government,” Bhat said in the House. “The bureaucrats are challenging the authority of the Speaker. This letter should be made part of the record and discussed in the House. Is this the Legislative Assembly or a panchayat?”

On Monday, Abdullah revealed in the House that the Law Secretary has written a letter to the Speaker, asking him to disallow the CM’s resolution on statehood. “…As the Law Minister, I am not aware that my Law Secretary is sending you an opinion. As CM, I am not aware that the Chief Secretary is sending you a letter regarding my resolution,” he said, addressing the Speaker.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) objected to the resolution being moved, it was passed through a unanimous voice vote after the the Opposition party walked out of the House.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Sunil Sharma, however, called the resolution “unconstitutional” and demanded the resignation of the Speaker.

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Sharma told : “The Speaker should step down. He should accept he has made a mistake and resign.”

Sharma said the chief secretary should not forward the resolution to the central government. “It is invalid… If the government has done something wrong, why should the chief secretary (allow it)? The government has compulsion of voters but the chief secretary doesn’t have,” he said.

While the BJP says the Law Secretary’s letter vindicated its stand, all the non-BJP political leaders have called it an act of undermining the legislature.

‘Is he bigger than the people of J&K?’

“It is reprehensible, it is a disdainful act of brutality against the elected Assembly by the Honb’le chief secretary. How can he, who is he? Is he bigger than the people of Jammu and Kashmir?” Peoples Conference leader and Handwara legislator Sajad Gani Lone said outside the Assembly. “More than anything else, this Assembly, its power may have been eroded, but the fact remains that it represents the collective will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and that can’t be surpassed by anything, anybody in the country, let alone the Chief Secretary.”

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National Conference Legislator from Uri, Sajad Shafi, said the bureaucrats are nobody to decide what the legislators move in Assembly. “I haven’t seen the letter but the chief secretary is nobody to write a letter,” Shafi said. “He is nobody to dictate terms: which resolution we can bring and which we can’t. It is the legislators who can decide.”

While rejecting the interference of bureaucrats in the legislature, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Pulwama legislator Waheed Para said the government’s rejection of resolutions in the past has encouraged the bureaucrats to act like this.

“Legislature is not subservient to bureaucracy. Legislators are the lawmakers. There are precedents. Tamil Nadu brought a resolution over Waqf in the Assembly,” Para told . “The bureaucrats have been encouraged by the acts of the government itself. The government in the past rejected eight resolutions, citing that the matter is sub judice. The bureaucrats are now using a similar language.”