Plea before Supreme Court seeks 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament, State legislatures

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking reintroduction of Women’s Reservation Bill which provides for 33 percent reservation for women in the parliament and State legislatures.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and JK Maheshwari noted that the matter was important and asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the same to the Central government and posted the case for further consideration in the week commencing on September 26.

The Constitution (One Hundred & Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 also known as the Women’s Reservation Bill among other things contemplated reservation of 33% seats in the Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies for women.

The draft bill provided for women's reservation on a rotation basis to be determined by draw of lots, in such a way that a seat would be reserved only once in three consecutive general elections. It further provided that reservation of seats for women would cease to exist 15 years after the commencement of the amendment Act.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha over 25 years ago in 1996 and was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 as the Constitution (One Hundred & Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008 before lapsing in 2014 after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.

The petition filed before the top court by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) through advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that the action by the respondent in not placing the beneficial legislation before the Lok Sabha after it being passed by the Rajya Sabha was arbitrary, illegal and discriminatory.

"It is submitted that the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 and has been crystallized so as to its aims and objectives to a large extent. In view thereof it is submitted that nonintroduction of such an important and beneficial Bill, on which there is a virtual consensus of all major political parties, is arbitrary," the plea stated.

The petition emphasised that despite women being over half of the country's population, their participation in parliament was a pitiful 14%, and it urged for strong affirmative action to be made to improve the condition of women.

It went on to say that low involvement of women in parliament had a direct influence on the priorities and assumptions of policies and laws and that including more women in decision-making processes would result in a qualitative shift in governance.

It further stated that the patriarchal mindset, which has led to oppression of women, has denied them their rightful status as equals.

This can be changed only if women are placed in positions of authority through concrete measures such as including more women in the parliament, it stated.

The plea also contended that the Bill was not passed despite promises made by the BJP Government in its manifestos for 2014 as well as 2019.

"However, despite repeated promises no action has been forthcoming in regard with the passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill even though the BJP has a majority in the Lok Sabha. The Bill has been supported on record by the Congress party which is the main Opposition party," the petition said.

The petition further stated that in answer to a question about the Bill, Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju stated in parliament that the subject would require serious analysis based on consensus among all political parties before a Bill to modify the Constitution is introduced in Parliament.

Pertinently, the plea stated that the election manifestos of political parties such as the BJP, INC, AIADMK, DMK, Shiromani Akali Dal, CPI(M), Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, and NCP included the promise of passing the Women's Reservation Bill and stated that despite the Bill enjoying support of a majority of mainstream political parties, it had not seen the light of day.