Ladakh Became a Union Territory on 31 October 2019 With Two Hill Councils Instead of an Assembly, Lies Between 2,900 and 5,900 Metres and Hosts a Telescope at 4,500 Metres

Ladakh became a Union Territory on 31 October 2019, formed from the Kargil and Leh districts and given no legislature. In place of an Assembly it has two elected hill councils, one each for Leh and Kargil, which date from 1995 and 2003. The Leh district profile on the Ladakh administration’s disaster-management site puts the territory between 2,900 and 5,900 metres above sea level, and at Hanle, at 4,500 metres, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics runs a 2-metre telescope.

The 2011 Census, whose tables the City Population site reproduces, counted 2,74,289 people: 1,40,802 in Kargil and 1,33,487 in Leh. The Leh district profile adds that its count includes military, paramilitary and other migrant personnel living in the district. Census 2011 is the last completed count, so every population figure below is from it.

How Ladakh became a Union Territory

Section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 formed “a new Union territory to be known as the Union territory of Ladakh” from the “Kargil and Leh districts” of the former state, from a day the Centre was to fix by notification. The section’s heading reads “Formation of Union territory of Ladakh without Legislature”. The Hitavada reported on the morning of 31 October 2019 that the appointed day for the two new territories was that date, and that their first Lieutenant Governors would be sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the one in Leh and the other in Srinagar.

A Union Territory is an area the Centre administers directly instead of leaving it to an elected state government. The other seven and the law each one runs under are compared in our guide to the Union Territories.

How Ladakh is governed without an Assembly

Section 58 of the Act has the President administer Ladakh through a Lieutenant Governor appointed under Article 239 of the Constitution, assisted by advisers whom the Central Government appoints. The same section lets the President make regulations for Ladakh under Article 240, and a regulation has the force of an Act of Parliament and can amend or repeal existing laws.

One 2025 regulation shows how this works in practice. The Ladakh Official Languages Regulation, 2025, which All India Radio reported on 4 June 2025, recognises English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti and Purgi as official languages for all or any of the territory’s official purposes, and English keeps the uses it already had.

In Parliament, section 10 of the Act gives the territory one seat in the Lok Sabha. Section 9 allots Rajya Sabha seats only to Jammu and Kashmir, so Ladakh has none. Section 75 makes the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir the common High Court for both territories.

Ladakh had two districts until 2026. The Ministry of Home Affairs approved five more in August 2024, and on 27 April 2026 the Lieutenant Governor approved the notification creating them, according to the Ladakh government’s announcement. Nubra (headquarters Diskit), Sham (Khaltse) and Changthang (Nyoma) were cut from Leh, and Zanskar (Padum) and Drass (Drass-Ranbirpura) from Kargil, so the territory now has seven districts. Leh keeps 44 revenue villages and Kargil 80.

The two hill councils

The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, was constituted under an Act of 1995. According to the Leh district administration it held its first election on 28 August 1995 and met for the first time on 3 September 1995. The Kargil council began work in July 2003 with 30 members, 26 elected from constituencies and four nominated to represent minorities and women. Its Chief Executive Councillor holds the rank and powers of a Cabinet Minister, according to the Kargil administration, and the district’s Deputy Commissioner doubles as the council’s Chief Executive Officer.

The Leh council’s five-year term ran out on 30 October 2025. An order reported by Greater Kashmir on 1 November 2025 has the Deputy Commissioner administer the council from 31 October until fresh elections. The order says an election was not practicable at that stage because the new districts require council boundaries to be redrawn and because the council Act still had to be amended for the one-third reservation for women. The reports checked for this profile give no date for a new Leh election.

What the economy earns, and what is not published

The Reserve Bank’s Handbook of Statistics on Indian States, in its 29 August 2025 table of per capita net state domestic product, has no row for Ladakh. Its note says figures for Jammu and Kashmir from 2019-20 onwards cover only that Union Territory. No official gross domestic product figure for Ladakh turned up in the records checked for this profile, so none is given here. It is a gap in what could be found, not a statement that none exists.

What is published is the money the Centre allots. Kashmir Reader reported that the Union Budget presented on 1 February 2026 allocates Rs 4,869.31 crore to Ladakh for 2026-27, made up of Rs 2,542.26 crore on revenue account and Rs 2,327.05 crore on capital account. The 2025-26 budget estimate was Rs 4,692.15 crore and the revised estimate Rs 7,377.43 crore, so the new figure is about 3.8 per cent above the earlier estimate and about a third below the revised one.

Visitor counts are the other published series. The Ladakh administration’s figures, reported by ETV Bharat on 9 July 2026, count 2,25,286 visitors from January to June 2026, of whom 2,11,645 were domestic and 13,641 foreign. June 2026 alone brought 1,07,740 people against 75,089 in June 2025. Our first-visit guide to Ladakh gives the permits, fees and altitude rules for those travelling there.

A large energy project is also planned. A Lok Sabha reply reported on 10 April 2025 said a hybrid renewable park of 13 GW, with solar, wind and battery storage, is envisaged across Pang, Debring and Kharnak, and that no companies had yet been selected for it. The transmission system to carry the power, which PowerGrid is building, has a total project cost of Rs 20,773.70 crore, with central assistance of 40 per cent of the plan cost or the awarded cost, whichever is lower.

What sets Ladakh apart

Ladakh holds the Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle, which the Indian Institute of Astrophysics says stands at 4,500 metres. The 2-metre Himalayan Chandra Telescope there was dedicated to the nation on 29 August 2001 and is operated remotely from Hosakote, using dedicated satellite links. The site search began with a reconnaissance survey in September 1993.

The 2011 tables record 2,18,193 of Ladakh’s 2,74,289 people as Scheduled Tribes, about 80 per cent. Siachen, the glacier in the north where Operation Meghdoot began in April 1984, has its own account in our article on the operation.

The Sixth Schedule question and the talks

The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, headed “Provisions as to the Administration of Tribal Areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram”, lets district councils of up to 30 members, of whom up to four are nominated by the Governor, make laws on land, forests, marriage, social customs and similar subjects. Our explainer on the Fifth and Sixth Schedules sets out the rest. Ladakh is not among the four states in that heading, and its two councils, which also have 30 members, 26 of them elected, were created by their own Acts.

The Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance have asked the Centre for statehood, Sixth Schedule status, separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil and a reservation for local employment, according to PTI. On 24 September 2025 a protest in Leh turned violent. PTI reported four deaths and at least 59 injuries, and a curfew followed.

The Home Ministry’s position appears in reports of the talks. Reach Ladakh reported an in-principle understanding on 22 May 2026 in Delhi: powers for an elected Union Territory-level body, with safeguards on the lines of Articles 371A, 371F and 371G, which apply to Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram. The report says Ministry officials reportedly explained that full statehood was not yet possible because Ladakh lacks the revenue to cover large expenses such as salaries. It quotes Chering Dorje Lakruk as saying, “This is only the initial stage.” The Article 371 provisions are covered in our piece on special provisions.

What comes next

The Tribune reported on 8 October 2026 that a round of talks with the Home Ministry on the proposed safeguards was expected in Ladakh on 15 October, after a 9 September meeting that the two groups called a “non-starter”. The Leh Apex Body’s convener said the groups would examine any proposal and seek broad consensus. The reports checked give no date for the Leh council election, and the April 2025 Lok Sabha reply said no company had yet been selected for the 13 GW park.