BJP Govt brings in women’s reservation Bill: One-third of seats to be reserved, also in SC/ST quota
Lexpedia News · 24 September 2023 · 2 min read
The PM, Narendra Modi government on Tuesday introduced the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023, to bring in 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies. This will include reserving 1/3rd of the seats kept for SC/STs, and “as nearly as possible”, 1/3rd of the total seats in the general category.
- It mandates women’s reservation for 15 years from the commencement of the Act, with Parliament empowered to extend it further.
- The seats will be reserved after the completion of the delimitation exercise based on the first Census conducted after the passage of the Bill.
- The current House has 82 women MPs.
- Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal said that once passed, it will take the number of women MPs in the Lok Sabha, as per its present strength of 543, to 181.
Articles to be Amended:-
- The Bill, which seeks to insert clause (1) in Article 330 A to reserve seats for women, says by another clause that one-third of the seats reserved for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha be reserved for women from these categories, and a third clause on keeping aside, as nearly as possible, one-third of the total seats filled by direct election the Lok Sabha for women.
- Extending the same principle, the Bill seeks to amend Article 332-A to mandate women’s reservation in Legislative Assemblies, plus other amendments in the Article to keep one-third of SC/ST seats for women in the category, and, 33% of all seats – as nearly as possible – filled by direct election for women.
- The Bill seeks to insert in Clause 2 of Article 239 AA, after sub-clause (b), the following clauses: “(ba) Seats shall be reserved for women in the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi”, and (bb), which says that one-third of the seats reserved for SCs and STs in the Delhi Assembly shall be reserved for women.
History of the Bill:-
- It was first introduced in September 1996 by the H D Deve Gowda government, then in December 1998 and December 1999 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
- The Manmohan Singh government introduced it in the Rajya Sabha in 2008, from where it was sent to the department-related Standing Committee. It was then passed by the Rajya Sabha and sent to the Lok Sabha.
- It became the property of the Lok Sabha and lapsed because the Lower House did not pass it till its dissolution in 2014.
