Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a writ petition challenging the provision in the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), which makes the implementation of 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies contingent upon the completion of delimitation after the next census.

A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan heard the matter.

During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner argued that there was no rational nexus in making the implementation of the reservation contingent on a future exercise, which has not even begun. “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,” she submitted.

Justice Nagarathna observed that enforcement of a law falls within the domain of the executive. In response, the petitioner's counsel clarified, “We are not even asking that. Our only concern is this contingency which is yet to happen in the future and nobody knows when it is going to start and when it is going to complete.”

Justice Nagarathna said, “We can only ask them when they are proposing to have it,” and added, “Maybe they want to do it based on scientific data.”

The counsel responded that it has to be assumed that there was aready scientific data on the basis of which the Parliament once Parliament had provided for one-third reservation.

The Court then directed issuance of notice to the respondents.

The petition, filed by a Congress leader from MP Dr. Jaya Thakur, seeks to declare the condition “after the delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census” under Article 334A(1) of the Constitution as void-ab-initio, and prays for immediate implementation of women's reservation. It contends that the provision violates Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution by deferring the benefit indefinitely.

Filed through advocate Varun Thakur, the petition points out that several past constitutional amendments providing for reservations were implemented immediately without being tied to the completion of any census or delimitation exercise. It argues that the impugned “clog” defeats the objective of ensuring adequate representation of women in the democratic process, despite women constituting nearly 50% of India's population and holding only around 4% of seats in legislative bodies.

The earlier petition filed by the same petitioner was previously dismissed as infructuous as it was filed challenging the Bill before the grant of President's Assent.

Case no. – Diary No. 30811 / 2025

Case Title – Jaya Thakur v. Union of India