Congress urges government to hold an all‑party meeting on women’s quota law

The Congress has conveyed to the government that instead of consulting political parties individually on the possibility of bringing an amendment to advance the timeline for implementing the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act or the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the government should convene an all-party meeting. The Act seeks to allocate 33% of seats in directly elected legislative bodies, including the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, to women.

The legislation, more commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023, was passed by Parliament during a special session, the first in the new Parliament building, on September 21, 2023.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had informally reached out to at least two parties, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, on behalf of Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking their views on amending Section 5 of the Act. The provision states that reservation for women will come into effect “after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first Census taken after commencement of the Act.”

Neither party has so far met Mr. Shah. Though there have been phone calls back and forth between the government and the Opposition parties. The meeting with the Samajwadi Party was originally scheduled for March 5. On the same day, Mr. Shah was in Patna to be with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as he filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election.

Mr. Shah was expected to return to the national capital by the evening but was delayed.

So far, according to sources, the government has not reached out again. “There should be an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so that the views of all political parties can be taken instead of these informal meetings,” a senior Congress leader said.

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Pre-legislative consultation is essential in this case, since it involves a Constitutional amendment. Article 368(2) of the Constitution states that such an amendment has to be passed in each House “by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds or the members of that House present and voting.”

The BJP has 240 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 103 members in the Rajya Sabha. In neither House does the party command, on its own, the strength required to pass the legislation.