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A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice to the Center saying that women are the largest minority in the country.
Justice Nagarathna said, “Our Preamble to the Constitution of India says that all citizens are entitled to political and social equality. Who is the largest minority in this country? It is women. It is about 48%. It is about political equality of women.”
Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for petitioner Jaya Thakur, said that it is unfortunate that after 75 years of the country’s independence, women have to approach the court for representation.
He submitted that the Act reserves one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies on the basis of data.
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The bench said that it is the prerogative of the executive to enforce the law and no mandamus can be issued in these matters.
Justice Nagarathna said, “Courts have limitations while intervening in such policy matters.”
Jaya Thakur, in her plea filed through advocate Varun Thakur, has sought implementation of the Act without waiting for the conduct of the new delimitation exercise.
“The petitioner herein prefers the present writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India seeking a mandamus direction for declaring the relevant data of the first census of the ‘One Hundred Sixth Amendment Act 2023’ for the immediate implementation of 33% women reservation, as per the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Act, 2023, i.e. delimited for the purpose,” he said in his petition. 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Act) in its true letter and spirit.”
The petition said that representation from all corners of the society is necessary in the democratic process, but there has not been adequate representation of women in Parliament as well as in the state legislatures for the last 75 years.
“This is a long pending demand for decades and the Parliament has rightly passed the aforesaid Act for 33% reservation but provided that the said Act shall be implemented ‘after the relevant data of the first census is collected for the purpose of delimitation’, which may be declared as ‘zero-now-started’ for the immediate implementation of 33% women reservation,” it said.
The petition further said that constitutional amendment cannot be stopped for an indefinite period. In fact, a special session was called to amend the law to implement reservation in Parliament as well as state legislatures. Both Houses passed this bill unanimously, the President of India also gave assent and subsequently the Act was notified on September 28, 2023.
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Interestingly, on January 10, the apex court declined to examine petitions challenging the delimitation clause in the 2023 Act.
The apex court was not inclined to entertain the petition filed by Jaya Thakur and National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) under Article 32 of the Constitution.
The bench noted that Jaya Thakur’s petition challenged the bill, which has now become an Act, while NFIW challenged the limitation clause of the law.
While Thakur’s plea was dismissed as frivolous, the court was not inclined to examine NFIW’s plea under Article 32, saying it could approach the High Court or any other appropriate forum.
The NFIW challenged the constitutional validity of Article 334A(1) or Section 5 of the 2023 Act, which made the delimitation of constituencies a condition for the implementation of the Act.
Hearing Jaya Thakur’s plea on November 3, 2023, the top court said it would be “very difficult” for the court to strike down a part of the women’s reservation law that comes into force after the census.
It refused to issue notice on his plea and asked his lawyer to serve a copy to the lawyer representing the Centre.
On September 21, 2023, the watershed bill to reserve one-third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies got parliamentary approval.
The Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha almost unanimously and by the Rajya Sabha unanimously. On September 28, 2023, President Draupadi Murmu gave his assent to the bill.
The law will take some time to be implemented because the next census and the subsequent delimitation process, redrawing of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies, will find out the special seats to be earmarked for women.
The quota for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies will continue for 15 years and Parliament can subsequently extend the period of benefit.
Efforts were being made to pass this bill in Parliament since 1996 and the last such attempt was made in 2010, when the Rajya Sabha approved a bill for women’s reservation, but it could not be passed in the Lok Sabha.
The data shows that the number of women MPs in the Lok Sabha is around 15%, while their representation in many state assemblies was less than 10%.
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