Women’s Reservation Bill: SC Asks Centre To Respond To Congress Leader’s Plea Within 2 Weeks

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file a response to a plea seeking the immediate implementation of Women's reservation bill ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central government to respond within two weeks to a Congress leader’s plea seeking the immediate implementation of the Women’s reservation bill 2023.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta alloted the Centre two weeks to respond to the plea on the immediate implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Act-2023. Advocate Kanu Agrawal, who represented the Union government, said the Centre need more time file a comprehensive reply.

The plea seeks the implementation of the bill which will allow one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies to be reserved for women before the general elections due this year.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for petitioner Congress leader Jaya Thakur, said the court should issue a direction to ensure that the law can be implemented before the general elections.

Justice Khanna said the court cannot pass a direction and this stage and asked Singh to wait for the Centre’s reply.

When advocate Prashant Bhushan said he wanted to file a petition on the issue, the bench told him his plea, being a fresh matter, can only be assigned to a bench by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.

It posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.

On January 16, the top court had deferred the hearing of the plea till January 22 after counsel who were to appear on the Centre’s behalf were not available.

The SC had said on November 3, 2023 it would be “very difficult” for the court to strike down a part of the women’s reservation law that says it will come into effect after the Census.

On September 21, 2023, the watershed bill to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women received the parliamentary nod.

The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution amendment bill with near unanimity, while the Rajya Sabha cleared it unanimously.

The law will take some time before it is implemented as the next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise for redrawing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies will help identify the seats to be reserved for women.

The quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will continue for 15 years. Parliament can later extend the duration of the quota for women.

While there is quota within quota for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) women, the opposition had demanded that the benefit be extended to Other Backward Classes, too.

Data shows that women MPs account only for nearly 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha’s strength, while their representation is below 10 per cent in many state assemblies.

(With PTI inputs)