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.
