Union Cabinet Approves Women's Reservation Bill : Reports

The special session was announced last month by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi without declaring the agenda. Last week, the agenda for the special session was announced. The tentative schedule of the legislative business mentioned eight bills and the women's reservation bill was not among them.

Today, the session was kick-started with a discussion on India’s ‘parliamentary journey’ spanning 75 years, opened by the prime minister in the Lok Sabha and union minister Piyush Goyal in the Rajya Sabha.

Although there was no mention of the women’s reservation bill on the agenda, several political parties made a strong pitch in support of it. Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) lawmaker K Kavitha wrote to 47 political parties, urging them to unite and pass the women’s reservation bill in the special session of Parliament. Various political parties also reportedly advocated for the reintroduction of the bill during an all-party meeting on the eve of the five-day Parliament session that commenced on Monday. In response, the Modi government stated that a decision would be made at a suitable juncture.

In 2010, the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, also referred to as the ‘women’s reservation bill’, which sought to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies. Although the constitutional amendment was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010, it lapsed after the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and was not placed before the lower house of the Parliament again.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by the National Federation of Indian Women praying for the reintroduction of the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008. The bill and its objectives, the NFIW has argued, enjoy support from all political parties and the manifestoes of these parties include the promise of passing the women’s reservation bill. The petitioner has contended that the government cannot be allowed to keep a bill, which has been passed by the Rajya Sabha and enjoys the support of a majority of mainstream political parties, hanging indefinitely on the pretext of further consideration and the need for consensus between political parties. Last month, a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna questioned the central government about its reluctance to file a response to this plea. The court also indicated that it would issue an order during the next hearing, while staying within the bounds of permissible judicial intervention.