2 months ago
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After informal feelers failed to bring the Congress and different Opposition parties to the array to sermon accelerating the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, popularly known arsenic the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge connected Monday (March 16, 2026) reiterating the request. The Congress, successful response, erstwhile again conveyed that the contented should beryllium discussed successful an all‑party gathering chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Writing to Mr. Kharge, Mr. Rijiju underlined the value of the implementation model and the request of a wide nationalist statement for the effectual operationalisation of the law.
The government, according to sources, wants to omit 2 cardinal steps successful the implementation of the Act — completion of the census report, which is expected lone by mid‑2027 aft the census is completed by March 2027, and delimitation, which volition redraw the boundaries of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. Because of these 2 steps, the timeline for reserving 33% of seats successful elected legislative bodies remained ambiguous. The indefinite timeline for implementation was 1 of the Opposition’s main criticisms erstwhile the authorities brought the instrumentality to Parliament successful September 2023.
Unmoved by the written request, Mr. Kharge reiterated the party’s stance. Responding to Mr. Rijiju’s letter, helium wondered why, 30 months aft Parliament unanimously passed the Bill, the authorities was reaching retired to “deliberate upon the modalities and roadmap for implementation of this landmark law amendment.”
Mr. Kharge emphasised that helium had already informed the authorities of the Congress’s presumption that an all‑party gathering chaired by the Prime Minister should beryllium convened astatine the earliest to sermon specified a roadmap. “It would beryllium successful keeping with the champion traditions of parliamentary democracy,” Mr. Kharge wrote.
Meanwhile, speculation continues that the authorities could bring successful a Bill to amend the instrumentality successful the ongoing league of Parliament. According to sources, the authorities could opt for rotation of reserved seats for women — 1 of the cardinal recommendations of the Geeta Mukherjee Committee, which reviewed the authorities erstwhile it was archetypal introduced successful Parliament. The sheet had suggested rotating reserved seats for women successful successive elections to guarantee equitable practice crossed constituencies implicit time. Under this recommendation, the reserved seats would beryllium rotated aft each wide election. This rhythm was designed truthful that aft 3 wide elections, each constituencies successful the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies would person been reserved astatine slightest erstwhile for women.
Parliament volition person to amend Section 5 of the Act, which states that preservation for women volition travel into effect “after an workout of delimitation is undertaken for this intent aft the applicable figures for the archetypal Census taken aft commencement of the Act…”. Since this is simply a law amendment, Article 368(2) requires that it beryllium passed successful each House “by a bulk of the full rank of that House and by a bulk of not little than two‑thirds of the members of that House contiguous and voting.”
The BJP has 240 MPs successful the Lok Sabha and 103 members successful the Rajya Sabha. In neither House does the enactment command, connected its own, the spot required to walk the legislation.
