The Supreme Court of India gave the government four weeks to reply to a PIL seeking the women’s reservation law. This law mandates one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha, all State Assemblies, and the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
The Supreme Court granted the Union government four weeks to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that calls for the implementation of the women’s reservation law.
This law mandates the reservation of one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
Justices B. V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan presided over the hearing of the petition, which seeks to operationalize the constitutional framework for enhancing women’s political representation.
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During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta, alongside Advocate Varun Thakur representing the petitioner, urged the Court to hasten the pleadings. Gupta emphasized the importance of speeding up the Union government’s filing of a counter affidavit, suggesting that doing so would allow the petitioner to submit a rejoinder promptly.
Additional Solicitor General K. M. Nataraj, representing the Union government, requested four weeks to prepare and submit the Centre’s response.
The Court granted this request, stating,
“Four weeks’ time is granted to the learned ASG to file a counter. List the matter on May 13.”
The petition specifically requests that the constitutional mandate for reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State legislative assemblies, and the Delhi Legislative Assembly be enforced. The matter is now scheduled for further hearing on April 13, following the Centre’s response.
Notably, the Court had previously issued a notice to the Union government on November 10 regarding this plea. In that hearing, the petitioner challenged the rationale of linking the implementation of women’s political reservation to a process that has neither commenced nor has a clear timeline.
Gupta argued,
“Why make it contingent on a future exercise? No exercise has even begun. There is no rational nexus. When the exercise will commence is not mentioned anywhere; they have yet to even start the census.”
Justice Nagarathna acknowledged that the enforcement of laws falls under the executive branch but remarked that the Court could seek clarification about the proposed timeline.
She noted,
“We can only ask them when they are proposing to have it,”
The bench also considered the government’s approach, with Justice Nagarathna suggesting,
“Maybe they want to do it based on scientific data.”
The Women’s Reservation Bill, passed in September 2023 and officially named the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, allows for 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. However, this law stipulates that the reservation will take effect only after the next delimitation exercise is completed, following the first census conducted post-enactment.
This provision has received criticism for potentially delaying implementation for several years. In September 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, originally introduced as the Constitution (Eighty First Amendment) Bill, 1996, with the aim of reserving 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies.
The Bill also specifies that one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be set aside for women from those communities, with reserved seats potentially rotated among different constituencies in the state or union territory.
Additionally, the Bill indicates that such reservation will cease 15 years after the commencement of this Amendment Act.
In August 2023, the Supreme Court had questioned the Central Government regarding its delays in responding to a PIL submitted by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), which sought a writ of mandamus to compel the Union of India to present the Constitution (One hundred & Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, or the current draft of the Women’s Reservation Bill before both Houses of Parliament.
Case Title: Jaya Thakur v. Union of India
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