Parliament special session: The bill seeking to secure 33% seats for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies is set to be tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday.
The Women Reservation Bill seeking to guarantee 33% quota for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies was introduced in Lok Sabha of the new Parliament building amid the ongoing special session on Tuesday. The bill was introduced as the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill by the Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
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What are the features of the bill?
1)The bill mandates the reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament. As per the amendment, one-third of the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha will be reserved for women. This move is a bid to ensure greater representation of women in the national legislature.
2)The bill extends its provisions to the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. “One-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in the Delhi Assembly are also reserved for women…One-third of the total number of seats filled by direct election in the Delhi Assembly (including those reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Castes) are also reserved for women,” the bill states.
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3)The amendment applies to the legislative assemblies of all Indian states. Similar to the Lok Sabha and Delhi Assembly provisions, one-third of the total seats reserved under the applicable clause shall be reserved for women, including those from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it said.
4)The bill specifies that the provisions related to the reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and the Delhi Assembly will come into effect after a delimitation exercise is conducted. It states “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provision of this Part or Part VIII, the provisions of the Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People, the Legislative Assembly of a State and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after commencement of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Act, 2023 have been published and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of fifteen years from such commencement.”
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5)The bill allows for the rotation of reserved seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and the Delhi Assembly after each subsequent delimitation exercise, as determined by the Parliament.
