16 Jan 2024 4:47 PM GMT
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 16) adjourned until February a plea the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, which proposes to introduce women's reservation in the Lok Sabha, the upper houses of the state legislatures, and the Delhi legislative assembly. Although the constitutional amendment was signed into law by President Droupadi Murmu in September, the act will not be implemented until a delimitation exercise is conducted following the next census.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, claiming that a constitutional amendment, once passed with overwhelming support in a special session called for the purpose, cannot be withheld.
On the last occasion, the court expressed its reservations about directing the union government to immediately implement this constitutional amendment before the 2024 general elections.
The apex court is currently hearing another PIL from 2021 filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). In this plea, the organisation has sought the reintroduction of the women's reservation bill, which, despite being passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010, lapsed after the dissolution of 15th Lok Sabha since it was not tabled in the lower house. One month before the the union cabinet approved the tabling of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Justice Khanna-led bench had pulled up the central government for not making its stand clear on the issue of women's reservation, asking why it had not filed a response to NFIW's public interest litigation petition.
While refusing to issue notice in Thakur's petition seeking the immediate introduction of women's quota, the top court agreed to hear it with NFIW's 2021 plea. Last week, it also directed a writ petition seeking the implementation of the 33 percent quota for women lawmakers to be heard along with these, in order to avoid multiplicity of litigation.
The hearing today was adjourned after no counsel appeared for the official respondents. Deferring the proceedings until the next month, Justice Khanna told Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Thakur, "Mr Singh, we are not saying anything. Let them come. Some steps have been taken. But obviously...let them appear."
Background
On September 29, President of India Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the women's reservation bill that passed both houses of parliament with broad bipartisan support earlier that month. The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 – which will come into effect after a delimitation exercise is conducted following the next census – seeks to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the upper houses of the state legislatures, and the Delhi legislative assembly. Not only this, the act also introduces horizontal reservation for women from scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) within the women's quota.
The amendment act has modified one constitutional provision, i.e., Article 239AA (special provisions with respect to Delhi), and inserted three new articles namely Articles 330A, 332A, and 334A – the first two seeking to introduce 33 per cent reservation in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies respectively. Article 334A contains a sunset clause declaring that this affirmative action policy will come to an end after 15 years. Not only this, but the article also clarifies that women's reservation will be granted only after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for the purpose following the first census after the enactment of the act.
During the debate in the two houses on the women's reservation bill, opposition leaders, even while broadly supporting the legislation, questioned the clause that sought to defer its implementation and urged the union government to dispense with the requirement of conducting a census and a delimitation exercise first. Last month, Congress leader Dr Jaya Thakur also filed a public interest litigation praying for a declaration that this clog was 'void-ab initio' and seeking the immediate implementation of the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023
Thakur's plea states that the constitutional amendment must not be withheld for an uncertain period, especially because the bill was passed in a special session specifically called for this purpose and had been passed with overwhelming support by both houses of the parliament. The writ petition states –
“In the democratic process, all corners of the society's representation is required, but for the last 75 years, there has been no adequate representation of women in the parliament as well as in the state legislatures. This has been a long pending demand for decades and the parliament rightly passed the above act for 33 per cent reservation. The clog that the said act will be implemented “after the delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census” may kindly be declared as 'void-ab-initio', for immediate implementation of the 33 per cent women reservation.”
Case Details
Jaya Thakur v. Union of India & Anr. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1181 of 2023