The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned a plea on 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 until February.
Though 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 comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, mentioning that a constitutional amendment, once passed with overwhelming support in a special session called for the purpose, cannot be withheld.
Earlier, the apex court expressed its reservations about directing the central government to immediately implement this constitutional amendment before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Supreme Court is currently hearing another PIL from 2021 lodged by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). In this petition, 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.
Notably, a 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 criticised the Centre for not making its stand clear on the issue of women’s reservation, questioning why it had not filed a response to NFIW’s public interest litigation petition.
While denying to issue notice in Congress leader Thakur’s petition seeking the immediate introduction of women’s reservation, the top court agreed to hear it with NFIW’s 2021 plea. Previously, 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.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court hearing was adjourned after no counsel appeared for the official respondents. Following, Justice Khanna deferred the proceedings until next month.