The Budget Session of Parliament was adjourned on 2 April. The Parliament will , however, reconvene on 16 April after a brief recess to pass bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816, so that the women’s reservation law can be implemented at the earliest.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned today, 2 April. Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, said the House will meet again soon to consider a key legislation.
“We have certain bills and important issues, and we have shared this with the opposition also. We are going to have a very important bill in the next two-three weeks,” Rijiju said.
According to the government calendar, the budget session, which started on 28 January, was supposed to end on 2 April. There won’t be any Parliament sitting on Friday. Both houses will now meet on 16 April.
In the remaining few days of Parliament, the government is expected to table a Constitution amendment bill to tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, commonly known as the women’s reservation law.
Last fortnight, Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed the plan with some NDA constituents and some non-Congress opposition floor leaders. But consultations with the principal opposition party, Congress, and another major party, TMC, were yet to take place.
According to the broad contours available, the number of Lok Sabha seats would be increased from the present 543 to 816, with 273 seats reserved for women. The reservation will also be made on a “vertical basis,” with seats allocated to SCs and STs. The redrawing of constituencies will be based on the 2011 census rather than the proposed 2027 census.
The provision for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was introduced by amending the Constitution in 2023, but it will come into effect after the completion of the delimitation exercise.
A similar exercise will be carried out for state assemblies, with seats reserved on a pro rata basis.
While a Constitution amendment bill will tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, commonly known as the women’s reservation law, another ordinary bill will amend the Delimitation Act.
Once approved by Parliament, the proposed laws will come into force on March 31, 2029, and will help reserve seats for women in the next Lok Sabha elections and in assembly elections in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Andhra Pradesh.
In September 2023, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill. The law is officially known as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act.
The government is expected to table a Constitution amendment bill to tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, commonly known as the women’s reservation law.
But the reservations were to become operational after the delimitation and census exercises were completed. The government, according to reports, has been considering amending the women quota law to implement it without the delimitation and census exercises.
#Budget #Session #adjourned #Parliament #reconvene #April #raise #Lok #Sabha #seats #Report
