The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill after more than six hours of debate spanning over two days.
One of the bills seeks to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. It was enacted to provide for reservation in appointment and admission in professional institutions for the members of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and other socially and educationally backward classes.
The Bills introduced on July 26 in the lower house of the parliament seek to implement reservations in the legislative assembly, jobs and professional institutes of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 for reservation in jobs and admission to professional institutions to members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other socially and educationally backward classes.
The bill seeks to amend section 2 of the Reservation Act to change the nomenclature of “weak and under privileged classes (social castes)” to “other backward classes” and make consequential amendments.
The other bill seeks to provide representation to “Kashmiri Migrants”, “Displaced Persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir “to preserve their political rights as well as for their overall social and economic development”.
It seeks to insert new sections 15A and 15B in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 to nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of “Kashmiri Migrants” and one Member from “Displaced Persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir”, to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.
The House began on the two bills on Tuesday. Twenty-nine members participated in the debate on the bills.
