Parliament Passes Key Bills Proposing To Extend Women's Reservation To Puducherry, Jammu And Kashmir Assemblies

Amid outrage by the opposition over the December 13 Lok Sabha breach, the Rajya Sabha on Monday (December 18) passed two key bills extending women's quote to Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir assemblies.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2023 secured passage in the Indian parliament's upper house today afternoon. The J&K bill, introduced in and passed by the Lok Sabha on December 12, marks a key amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. The primary focus of the amendment is on enhancing gender representation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The original act had facilitated the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature). The latest amendment proposes to reserve approximately one-third of all elected seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly for women.

In the ongoing winter session, the parliament also cleared two other bills amending key laws in Jammu and Kashmir. The bills, namely the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 6 and the Rajya Sabha on December 11. 

The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2023 passed the Lok Sabha on the same day as the J&K bill, and constitutes a pivotal amendment to the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963. The original act pertains to the establishment of legislative assemblies and the formation of councils of ministers for specific union territories. The amendment focuses on fostering greater gender representation in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly by reserving one-third of all elected seats for women.

The women's quota proposed to be introduced in the Puducherry and J&K assemblies would also extend to seats earmarked for members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The implementation of this reservation in both assemblies has been made contingent upon the publication of a census conducted subsequent to the commencement of the bill. Post-census, delimitation processes will be set in motion to allocate seats exclusively for women. The stipulated duration of this reservation is 15 years, with the potential for extension through parliamentary legislation. Another noteworthy aspect of the amendment involves the rotational allocation of seats reserved for women after each delimitation, with the specific modalities to be determined by a law made by the Parliament. 

In related news, the President of India in September gave her assent to the Constitution (Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act 2023, which seeks to provide one-third women's quota for women in the lower house of the parliament and the state legislatures, as well as the Delhi legislative assembly. Like these two bills which received the parliament's imprimatur today, the constitutional amendment, passed in a special session held this year, will also only be enforced only after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken following the first census conducted after its enactment. This policy too will be in operation for a period of 15 years from its commencement.