The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Union government’s response to a petition challenging provisions of the 2023 women’s reservation Act that state that the quota can only be implemented after delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, reported Live Law.

The Constitution One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment Bill, 2023, was passed by the Parliament in September 2023. It reserves one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women. The provision will also be applicable as a sub-quota within the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories. However, there is no such provision for the Other Backward Classes.

The reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies will be effective only after a census is conducted, followed by a delimitation exercise or the redrawing of boundaries to the constituencies.

The Union government stated in June that India will conduct its population census, which will include caste enumeration, in 2027.

On Monday, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan, noting the court’s limitations, stated that it can only ask the Union government when it is planning to implement the Act.

However, it pointed out that the Act was “about the political equality of the woman”, reported Bar and Bench.

“Preamble [to the Constitution] says [all citizens are entitled to] political and social equality,” said the court. “Who is the largest minority in this country? It is the woman…almost 48%.”

The bench also questioned why enough women were not being fielded as political candidates, Hindustan Times reported.

“Even without the reservation, why cannot women be granted tickets?” it asked. “Women’s representation in Parliament is coming down. Forget 33%, it is less than 10%.”

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur.

The petition was initially filed in 2023 with a request to implement the reservation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The plea was filed a second time in May and came up for hearing for the first time on Monday.

“A Constitutional amendment cannot be held back for an uncertain period,” The Hindu quoted the petition as saying. “For the last 75 years there has been no adequate representation of women in the Parliament as well as in the State Legislatures. This has been a long-pending demand for decades.”

She added that the Act marked a chance of giving women political justice and highlighted that “political justice is on par with social and economic justice”.

Currently, there are 75 women in the 543-member Lok Sabha and 42 in the 250-member Rajya Sabha.

The court has not fixed a date to take up the matter next.

Also read: When will women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha actually be implemented?

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