New Delhi, Jun 03 :
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday announced new rules for government jobs, language use, and local governance in Ladakh, aiming to protect the rights of Ladakh’s indigenous communities while offering a clear policy on who qualifies as a resident.
Issuing the Ladakh Reservation (Amendment) Regulation, 2025, the Centre introduced new reservation and domicile rules for the Union Territory of Ladakh, reserving up to 85 per cent of jobs for locals and one-third of the total number of seats in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils for women.
The new policy follows a May 27, 2025, meeting between civil society groups and MHA officials, aimed at addressing concerns about cultural preservation and job security for locals. The changes in the policies of the reservation in jobs, autonomous councils and domicile will come into effect immediately.
The total population of Ladakh, as per the 2011 Census, was 2,74,289, and nearly 80 per cent of them are tribals.
Under the new rules that comes into effect from June 3, those who have resided for a period of 15 years in the UT or studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10th or 12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT shall be domicile of Ladakh for the purposes of appointment to any post under the UT or under a
Centre notifies new
local or other authority other than Cantonment Board.
The Ladakh Official Languages Regulation, 2025, issued on Tuesday, also aims at safeguarding local interests as people in Ladakh have been protesting for constitutional safeguards to protect their language, culture and land after the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was abrogated in 2019.
Accordingly, English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi have been notified as official languages of the Union Territory of Ladakh. As per an official notification, English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union territory for which it was being used before the date of commencement of this Regulation.
The notification further said that the Administrator of UT may take such necessary steps as may be provided by rules to be made by him to strengthen the institutional mechanisms for the promotion and development of other languages in the Union territory and the establishment of the Academy of Art, Culture and languages.
According to the Regulations, the institutional mechanisms shall make special efforts for the promotion and development of other native languages of Ladakh: Shina (Dardic), Brokskat (Dardic), Balti and Ladakhi.’
Children of Central government officials, All India Services Officers, officials of Public Sector Undertaking and autonomous body of Central government, Public Sector Banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of Central Universities and recognised research institutes of Central government, who have served in the UT for a total period of 10 years are also eligible for domicile. The reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections continues to be 10 per cent.
The government has also promulgated the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Amendment) Regulation, 2025, to reserve one-third of seats in the Hill Councils of Leh and Kargil for women. As per the amendments to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997, not less than one-third of the total number of seats in each Council shall be reserved for women. These seats may be allotted by rotation to different territorial constituencies. The rotation of reserved constituencies will be based on the serial number assigned to each constituency by notification in the official gazette.
