The Union government has listed the four Bills related to Jammu & Kashmir, including one pertaining to the reservation of Assembly seats for “Kashmiri migrants”, to be taken up for discussion in the winter session of Parliament commencing 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.
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The J&K Reorganisation Amendment Bill seeks to nominate two members from the “Kashmiri migrants” community, who “migrated” when militancy was at its peak in the 1989-90, as Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. One of the members will be a woman.
It also proposes to nominate one member from “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” from among the people who were displaced in the 1947-48, 1965, and 1971 India-Pakistan wars. The Bill aims “to preserve their political rights” and “overall social and economic development”.
Apart from this, the three new criminal codes — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023; the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023; and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 that will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860; the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, respectively — have also been listed to be taken up for passage in the upcoming session. The Bills were introduced on August 11 in Parliament and were referred for examination to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which submitted its report in November.
