The Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 is likely to be moved by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act provides for reservation in appointment in state government posts, and admission to professional institutions, for certain reserved categories. The Bill provides for reservation in professional institutions for economically weaker sections.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 provides for the reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The Bill increases the total number of seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from 83 to 90. It also reserves seven seats for Scheduled Castes and nine seats for Scheduled Tribes.

Moreover, on Tuesday, Krishan Pal for Ministry of Heavy Industries, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan for Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Nityananad Rai for Ministry of Home Affairs, Sushri Shobha Karandlaje for Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary for Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Ajay Kumar for Ministry of Home Affairs will lay papers on the table.

The Secretary General will report a message from Rajya Sabha regarding the Post Office Bill, 2023. Nisith Pramanik will be making a statement correcting a reply given on August 8 to an Unstarred question asked by MP Sushil Kumar Singh on Vibrant Village Programme. He will also give reasons for delay in correcting the reply.

On Monday, the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament saw two bills being passed. The Standing committee reports on ‘The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023’, ‘The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023’, and ‘The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023’ were tabled in the two Houses. The reports were submitted to the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on November 10 by Brij Lal, MP and Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs.

The report of Ethics Committee, which looked into cash-for-query allegations Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, was not tabled in the Lok Sabha though it was in the listed agenda.

Rajya Sabha passed the Bill to repeal the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 and to consolidate and amend the law relating to the post offices in India. The opposition members raised questions over some provisions of the bill and asked if the government wanted to create a “surveillance state”. The government rejected the apprehensions of the members.

The bill was passed by a voice vote after a reply by the Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw. The bill provides that Post Office shall provide such services as the Central Government may by rules prescribe and the Director General of Postal Services shall make regulations in respect of activities necessary to provide those services and fix the charges for such services. The bill provides India Post will not incur any liability with regards to its services, except any liability prescribed through rules.

Lok Sabha passed the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which is in line with the government’s policy of repealing all obsolete laws or pre-independence Acts which have lost their utility. The Government in consultation with the Bar Council of India has decided to repeal the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879. It has decided to amend the Advocates Act, 1961 by incorporating the provisions of section 36 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 in the Advocates Act, 1961 so as to reduce the number of superfluous enactments in the statute book

The government has 21 Bills on its agenda for the session, including the bills to replace the IPC, the Indian Evidence Act and the CrPC.