NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed unanimously the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 with voice vote amending key laws in the Union Territory aimed at providing “rights to those who faced injustice”.
The significant legislative move on the sixth day of the Parliament’s Winter Session witnessed various Opposition leaders raising issues to reinstate the statehood of the erstwhile state and announce elections there.
Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aimed at providing “rights to those who faced injustice” and were deprived of their rights in the Union Territory. Both the bills were passed last week by the Lok Sabha. The Bills were jointly discussed a few hours after the Supreme Court passed a judgement upholding the constitutional validity of the Executive Order abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution and scrapping statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the two Jammu and Kashmir Bills, Union Minister Amit Shah said this is an important day as both these Bills will be passed and also because this will be written in golden letters in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and India.
“Today, Supreme Court upheld the intention behind Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019, its constitutional validity and the process.”
Shah said one of the Bills seeks to represent those who became refugees in their own country and also reserves one seat in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for people who have been displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Shah said several questions were raised even the day before yesterday. “In Lok Sabha, it was said that the Bill is pending and is being brought in haste. Supreme Court will do justice and we should wait for it. All these stands were not for justice but to halt the decisions taken by PM Modi.”
“SC accepted that Article 370 was a temporary provision. If Article 370 was so fair, so needful, then why would Nehru ji use the word temporary in front of it? Those who say that Article 370 is permanent are insulting the intention of the Constituent Assembly and the Constitution…Supreme Court has said that the said Article 370 was a temporary provision, which means that this claim of the petitioner that Article 370 can never be removed, has been completely rejected by the Supreme Court…,” Shah added.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 is aimed at amending the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 provided reservation in jobs and admission in professional institutions to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and other socially and educationally backward classes.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to amend the 2019 Act and provide representation in the Legislative Assembly to the Kashmiri Migrants and displaced persons from the PoK. It seeks to nominate two members from the Kashmiri migrant community and one person representing the displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to the Legislative Assembly.
The amendment Bill proposes to increase the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly to 90 from 83.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to reserve seats for the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. It seeks to insert new sections 15A and 15B in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 for the Lieutenant Governor 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. (Agencies)
