Supreme Court seeks centre's response on women's reservation law implementation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response to a PIL seeking implementation of the women's reservation law, which mandates that one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies be reserved for women.

Issuing notice to the Centre, a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan orally remarked that women are the largest minority in the country and that it is "about the political equality of women".

A plea was filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, seeking the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill 2024 without waiting for a fresh delimitation exercise.


The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on September 20, 2023, and by the Rajya Sabha the next day. It received the President's assent on September 28, 2023.

Thakur's counsel argued that even after 75 years of independence "it is unfortunate that we (women) have to move court for representation... They have to reserve only one-third of the total seats. They have decided to grant the reservation based on some data." The bench verbally remarked that the court has limitations when it comes to interfering in such policy matters.