In a significant development, the Lok Sabha on Dec 12 cleared a bill to reserve 33 percent seats for women in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory. The Lok Sabha today passed The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Second Amendment) Bill- 2023 to provide 33% reservation for women in the assembly of the UT.
The J&K Reorganization Bill-2023 was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 12. It will grant 33% reservation to women in the Assembly of the Union Territory. However, the bill will not come into effect until the Government of India has conducted a delimitation exercise after the next census, which has not been scheduled yet. This means that the bill will not become operational until 2029. The bill would not affect the powers of the Lieutenant Governor to appoint two women as Members of the Legislative Assembly if he deems that women are under-represented in the House. This provision has not been deleted from the Jammu & Kashmir R&K Act-2019. The bill was introduced in the Parliament in September this year to grant political reservations to women in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies.