Rajya Sabha passes bills for reservation in legislative assembly, education, jobs in Jammu & Kashmir

The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023..The Bills, passed on December 6 by the Lok Sabha, seek to implement reservation in the legislative assembly, in jobs and in professional institutes of the Union Territory of Jammu& 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 Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 modifies the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.The Act of 2019 specified the number of seats in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Legislative Assembly to be 83 (excluding seats designated for areas falling in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), with 6 of those seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), but none for Scheduled Tribes (STs).The Bill increases the total number of seats to 90, while reserving 7 seats for SCs and 9 seats for STs. It further grants the Lieutenant Governor (LG) the authority to nominate two members from the Kashmiri migrant community, one of whom must be a woman. The Bill also allows the LG to nominate a representative for displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, if the displacement occurred in 1947-48, 1965, or 1971..Importantly, the Supreme Court, in its judgment delivered today on the challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct elections in Jammu & Kashmir by September 30, 2024..Addressing the Rajya Sabha today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphased that the Reorganisation Bill reserves seats for Scheduled Tribes and stated that the same would not have been possible without the abrogation of Article 370.Defending the abrogation, he reiterated the Supreme Court's stance in the judgment that J&K did not have any internal sovereignty once it had acceded to India in 1949, and that Article 370(3) did not cease to operate only because the Constituent Assembly of J&K was dissolved..In response to opposition MPs highlighting the direction to Election Commission, Shah said,"So what ECI was given the direction? I have myself said that we will have the elections done. I have also said that at the appropriate time, we will restore J&K's Statehood.".[Read the Bills]