Indian government introduces constitutional amendment to reserve one-third of lower house and state legislative seats for women and other groups

The Indian government introduced legislation on [19 September] that would allocate a third of of the seats in the lower house of Parliament and state legislative assemblies to women. Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced [...] The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, also known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, in India’s lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, following a nearly three decade-long effort to pass similar legislation. The Women’s Reservation Bill would reserve 33 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha, the state legislatures, and the Delhi legislative assembly for women. The bill also includes sub-reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Anglo-Indians. [...] Following a delimitation process for Parliamentary constituencies, the reservation will go into effect and last for 15 years, after which it will become ineffective. The bill allows for the rotation of reserved seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly after each subsequent delimitation exercise, as determined by the Parliament.
Read the full article here: Jurist