Parliament Clears Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Bill, Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill

Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 modifies the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004, which governs reservations in jobs and admissions to professional institutions for members of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and socially and educationally backward classes. Key features include the replacement of the phrase "weak and under-privileged classes" with "other backward classes" as declared by the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The bill eliminates the original definition of weak and under-privileged classes.

On the other hand, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which facilitated the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. This bill proposes to increase the total number of seats in the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly from 107 to 114, of which seven would be reserved for scheduled caste members and nine seats for legislators from scheduled tribes. As per the J&K Reorganisaton Act, 24 seats of the Assembly will remain vacant until the occupation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir ceases. Therefore, the effective strength of the Assembly is 83, which the amendment seeks to increase as 90.

Other features include the power of the lieutenant governor to nominate up to two members from the Kashmiri migrant community to the legislative assembly, with one nominee being a woman. Additionally, one member representing displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir may be nominated. 'Kashmiri Migrants' are defined as persons who migrated from the Kashmir valley or any other part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir after November 1, 1989, and are registered with the Relief Commissioner.

Last week, the two bills were passed by the Lok Sabha even in the face of staunch opposition from several legislators who argued for the legislation to be deferred until after the Supreme Court's judgment on the validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's move to abrogate Article 370, taking away the special status enjoyed by the former state of Jammu and Kashmir. Opposition members also questioned why elections have not been held in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for four years since Article 370's abrogation. Defending the bills, Amit Shah, union home minister, reportedly said that the 'naya Kashmir' — ushered in through the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 — will ensure justice to those deprived of their rights for the last 70 years. During today's debate, Shah categorically said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belonged to India and "nobody can snatch it". The abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, he further insisted, was important to combat separatism, which fuelled terrorism in the valley. 

In a significant development, the Indian Supreme Court today upheld the validity of the decision to repeal the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution. The court held that the former state had no internal sovereignty and the concurrence of the state government was not required to apply the Indian Constitution to its territory. It further held that Article 370 was a temporary provision, and the president's power to notify its abrogation under Article 370(3) subsisted even after the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly. In view of Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta's assurance that the union government would soon restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, the court refrained from adjudicating upon the validity of its reorganisation into union territory, even while upholding the Centre's decision to carve out Ladakh as a separate union territory. The Court also directed the Election Commission of India to hold elections to the J&K assembly before September 30, 2024.