The UPA government’s dream can become reality either in a matter of months or may be delayed a long time.
“It will all depend on the political will of the government,” said former Lok Sabha secretary-general and constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap. Commenting on the future course of the Women’s Reservation Bill, Mr Kashyap said the legislation will now have to be cleared by the Lok Sabha from where it will be referred to the state Assemblies. The bill will have to be approved by over 50 per cent of the 28 states in the country before it reaches the President for approval, after which a final notification would have to be issued by the government.
But before that, if the government makes any changes to the bill passed by the Rajya Sabha to enable its passage in the Lok Sabha, the changed bill will have to return to the Rajya Sabha for passage.
Experts said as the Opposition BJP and Left supported the bill in the Rajya Sabha, the UPA will have to persuade various state governments headed by the Congress, BJP and Left to endorse the bill.
While the Congress is in power in Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Goa, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP has governments in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Bihar and Punjab. However, the journey of the bill will not end there as the government will have to take a call on the procedure to be adopted for the implementation of the legislation allowing one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and in the state Assemblies. As per the bill, seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies would be reserved in rotation during the terms of the respective Houses.
The government will also have to decide which authority, either the Election Commission or another agency, will implement the law. In that line, if the government prefers the legal route, it would have to come back to Parliament and seek approval. But the government will be able to implement 33 per cent reservation for women itself if it wishes to go by the rules, said experts.
After this, the government, or the designated authority, would have to decide the date from which the Women’s Reservation Bill will start operating. The 33 per cent reservation for women would then apply in the General Election and Assembly elections held after that date.
Amit Agnihotri