Jammu and Kashmir government has given another six-month extension to Justice GD Sharma-led commission, which was constituted in March 2020 to review reservation for different categories. The government has given extension to the panel after it made a request last month because the tenure of the commission ended on September 18, 2023. The commission is currently examining the issue of Reserved Backward Area (RBA) reservation. As many as 1200 villages each in Kashmir and Jammu are entitled to reservation under the RBA category. The commission has already submitted its recommendations for the inclusion of new tribes/classes in scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, and social castes (weak and unprivileged classes) lists. Based on its recommendations, the Union Government introduced three bills in the Parliament in July this year for restructuring reservations in J&K. These bills seek recognition of new groups as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes and rechristening of the “social castes” category in J&K as “other backward classes”.