Keywords: Delimitation, 106th amendment
A constitutional amendment reserving one-third of the seats for women in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, State legislatures, and Parliament was praised by the Supreme Court on November 3 as a “very good step” toward attaining gender parity in politics.
However, the court expressed reservations about intervening to guarantee the quota law’s implementation prior to the general election in 2024.
“It will be very difficult for us to do that. It will amount to virtually legislating” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, heading a Division Bench, observed.
. On November 22, the court did, however, list the case in conjunction with a related petition.
The law’s provision stating that the reservation should only be applied during the next Census and a delimitation exercise was contested in the case submitted by Jaya Thakur, who was represented by senior advocates Vikas Singh and Varinder Kumar Sharma.
Mr. Singh urged the court to declare the “of- fending” clause in the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act of 2023 “void ab-inito”.
He maintained that there should be no endless delay for a constitutional reform that the Parliament overwhelmingly approved during a Special Session. Mr. Singh contended that it is established law that a constitutional amendment cannot be revoked until it is determined to be unconstitutional.
In order to implement the reservation in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, State legislatures, and the Parliament, a special session was called . The Bill was approved by both Houses in unanimity. On September 28, 2023, notice of the Act was given. However, the petition stated that the Act’s purpose has not yet been fulfilled.
The senior attorney argued that postponing the Act’s implementation until after the Census and de-limiting it amounted to a largely meaningless injunction against its implementation.
The 1993- 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, which granted women one-third representation in local body elections, were mentioned in the petition. Dr. Thakur called the court’s attention to the 77th constitutional amendment, which extends reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in employment promotions. Lastly, the petition emphasized the recent implementation of the 10% EWS reservation in employment and educational institutions for low-income Forward Caste members of society. – public.
It stated that all of these changes went into effect without requiring Census data“Democracy is part of the basic structure of our Constitution and rule of law and free and fair elections are basic features of our democracy,” the petition argued.
Anushka Shukla, Faculty of Law, University Of Lucknow,Intern At Legal Vidhiya
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