SRINAGAR: The Union government has included four Bills related to Jammu and Kashmir, including one concerning the reservation of Assembly seats for “Kashmiri migrants,” in the agenda for discussion during the winter session of Parliament starting on December 4.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 were introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 26 but were not taken up for discussion or passage in the monsoon session.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Amendment Bill aims to appoint two members from the “Kashmiri migrants” community, who migrated during the peak of militancy in 1989-90, as Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, with one member being a woman.
Additionally, it proposes to appoint one member from ‘Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’ from those displaced during the 1947-48, 1965, and 1971 India-Pakistan wars. The objective is to “preserve their political rights” and ensure “overall social and economic development.”
In addition, three new criminal codes – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023; the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023; and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 – set to replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860; the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, have also been listed for passage in the upcoming session.
These Bills were introduced on August 11 and referred for examination to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which submitted its report in November.
