Examiner Bureau | Srinagar:
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has given his assent to six Bills passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly during its Autumn Session, paving the way for their implementation across the Union Territory.
The Assembly had passed the legislation during its session held from September 21 to 30. The Bills deal with a range of areas, including ease of doing business, regulatory reforms, taxation, municipal administration, cooperative societies and pensionary benefits for former members of the legislature.
The six legislations are the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2026; J&K Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2026; J&K Ease of Doing Business Bill, 2026; J&K Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026; J&K State Legislature Members’ Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2026; and J&K Jan Vishwas Third (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026.
The J&K Ease of Doing Business Bill provides enterprises with a three-year protection period from inspections or coercive action concerning approvals, permissions, registrations, licences and other regulatory requirements.
The protection, however, will not apply where permission for inspection or other action has been obtained from the concerned Deputy Commissioner.
The legislation also provides for the issuance of an in-principle approval certificate within three working days for enterprises being established in approved industrial parks through the District Empowered Committees.
The J&K Jan Vishwas Third (Amendment of Provisions) Bill seeks to rationalise penalties for minor regulatory violations by replacing imprisonment with monetary penalties in certain cases.
The legislation amends provisions under 23 Acts and repeals two obsolete Acts, with the stated objective of simplifying the regulatory framework and reducing the criminalisation of minor procedural violations.
The J&K Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026 seeks to align the Union Territory’s GST framework with amendments made to the Central GST legislation.
The amendments cover various provisions of the J&K GST Act and are aimed at simplifying compliance, strengthening the tax framework and reducing avoidable litigation.
The J&K Municipal (Amendment) Bill introduces changes relating to municipal bodies, including their composition and responsibilities connected with electoral processes.
The legislation also seeks to clarify the respective roles of the State Election Commission and field administration in the conduct of municipal elections.
Under the J&K State Legislature Members’ Pension (Amendment) Bill, the monthly pension payable to former legislators has been increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000.
The definition of family for the purpose of family pension has also been expanded to include widowed and divorced daughters of former legislators.
The Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill introduces changes to the legal and regulatory framework governing cooperative societies in the Union Territory.
With the Lieutenant Governor’s assent, the six legislations have cleared the final constitutional stage at the UT level. The concerned administrative departments are now expected to take follow-up measures, including the issuance of rules, guidelines, notifications and administrative instructions required to operationalise the amended provisions.
