Twin J&K Amendment Bills passed in Lok Sabha

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 were passed by Lok Sabha on the 3rd day of the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament. The former amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004 while the latter amends the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019.

New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 were passed by Lok Sabha on the third day of the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament on Wednesday. The twin bills on reservation in the J&K assembly besides jobs and education were tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah amid objection by the opposition especially by the regional parties in J&K which termed the bills “undemocratic” in absence of an elected government in the union territory.

The bills were passed in the Lok Sabha following an address by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shah hailed the twin bills saying they were “aimed at giving justice to the oppressed and deprived” in Jammu and Kashmir under the previous dispensations.

The Bills:

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill:The bills amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004, which envisages reservation in jobs at professional institutions to the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other socially and educationally backward classes.

As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004, the members belonging to the 'other socially and educationally backwards classes' are those living in villages declared as socially and educationally backward by the J&K government besides the population residing in areas adjoining the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the international border and weak and under-privileged classes (social castes) already notified by the government.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill 2023 has substituted the term 'weak and under-privileged classes' with 'other backward classes as such by the Government from time to time'.

Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023: The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 amends the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was enacted in October, 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370 on Aug 5 that year. While the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 stipulated the number of seats in the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Legislative Assembly as 83, the amended bill has increased the seats to 90 besides the seen seats reserved for Scs and nine for Sts.

The seats as specified under the 2019 Act excludes seats designated for areas falling in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir of which six seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), but none for Scheduled Tribes (Sts). The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 also empowers the J&K Lieutenant Governor to nominate up to two members belonging to the Kashmiri migrant community to the J&K Legislative Assembly.

Of the two members to be nominated by the LG, one must be a woman.