Women's Reservation Bill to come effect after delimitation

In the first big move after shifting to the new Parliament building, the government on Tuesday tabled the women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha to provide one-third reservation to women in the lower house of Parliament, state assemblies and the Delhi legislative assembly. Twenty-seven years after first being introduced, 13 years after it was passed by the Rajya Sabha and nine years after he himself came to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government was finally ready to enact the Women’s Reservation Bill reserving 33 percent of all seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women.

Here are the salient features of the Bill:

• The 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam' is the first bill to be tabled in the new Parliament building.
• Introducing the bill, law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said it aims to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and assemblies.
• The Bill states that one-third of seats will be reserved in the legislative assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi by amending Article 239AA, one-third of seats will be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha by amending Article 330 of the Indian Constitution, and one-third seats reserved in state legislative assemblies by amending Article 332.
• Notably, the women's reservation bill can only come into effect after the delimitation exercise is undertaken in India.This means that the bill cannot be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
• As per existing law, the next delimitation exercise can only be conducted after the first census to be taken post 2026. This effectively means that the bill cannot become a law until at least 2027.
• Some reports have suggested that the women's quota may get implemented by the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
• Constitutional experts said after the passage of the Bill by both Houses of Parliament, it will also have to be approved by at least 50 per cent of state assemblies to become a law. The nod by state assemblies is necessary as it affects the rights of the states.
• Once the bill becomes an Act, of the total seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the House/assembly, 33% will be set aside for women belonging to these communities.
• Once it becomes an Act, the law will be in force for 15 years. Its term can be extended.
• The number of women members in Lok Sabha will rise to 181 from 82 currently once the women's reservation bill comes into force, law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said.
• Seats reserved for women will be rotated after each delimitation exercise.

Criticisms against the Bill

Although the bill has been termed as a welcome move there are certain loopholes within the bill, especially the delimitation exercise.

When the bill was first passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010, this provision trying reservation to a fresh census and delimitation exercise was not part of it.

This means it effectively postpones the actual implementation of the “historic” measure to some unspecified date in the future.

Assuming the census is held some time after the 2024 election, its results would take a year to compile and publish, after which an unspecified delimitation exercise would then have to be undertaken. Even though this work could conceivably be completed within a year of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, reservation would only kick in after the existing house is dissolved – presumably after its five year term ends. It means it cannot be implemented before 2029 Lok Sabha Elections