Law Ministry issues JK Act corrigenda, fixing 52 errors

Fifty-five pages and 52 mistakes – this is the story of the contentious Act that allows bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

Indicating the hastiness of the process and putting the government in an embarrassing position, the Ministry of Law and Justice have now come up with three-page corrigenda to the notification of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 34 days after it was notified.

The notification on corrigenda was issued on Thursday to correct the 52 errors that crept into the notification issued on August 9, three days after it was passed by Parliament. All these mistakes were part of the Bill placed before the Rajya Sabha on August 5 along with a resolution to revoke special status for the state.

There were at least eight spelling mistakes in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which was notified on August 9, three days after the Parliament passed it. The Act aims to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladhak.

Article was spelled as "ARTCLES" while notwithstanding was printed as "NOWithstanding", territories was spelled as "Tterritories" and child as "CHILDS". At one place, 1916 was mentioned as "1960" while in another place 2006 was written as "2007" and 1993 as "1994". The Islamic personal law 'Shariat' was spelled as "Shariet".It was not just spelling mistakes but one of the government's Acts was also printed wrongly. The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 was printed as “The Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988”.

Tense was also changed in some instances while for the word "and", the symbol '&' was used five times.

At one place, it was printed Lieutenant Governor of the "State" of Jammu and Kashmir while it was corrected as "Union Territory" of Jammu and Kashmir.