THE Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women’s quota law was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a division of votes. Two ordinary bills -- the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women’s quota law in Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir -- were also introduced in the House. The Bills were introduced after a fiery 40-minute debate following which the Opposition pressed for the division of votes to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill. The Bill was later introduced with 251 members supporting it and 185 members voting against the introduction. Congress’ K C Venugopal questioned why the proposed changes in the women’s quota law were not incorporated when it was passed earlier by Parliament.

 

“Bills to tweak the women’s quota law and set up a delimitation panel are anti-constitutional,” he said. Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav questioned the rush to introduce the bills. “We support women’s quota in Legislature but why not hold a census?” he asked. DMK members dressed in black clothes in the Lok Sabha to protest amendments to the women’s reservation law. “We favour the 2023 women’s quota law, but the present Bill is aimed at delimitation,” DMK’s T R Baalu said. RSP’s N K Premchandran opposed the women’s quota law amendment, saying it is not meant for reservation but delimitation. Venugopal said a Constitutional amendment bill cannot be discussed together with other ordinary bills. Shah, however, rejected his objection saying it can be done. Speaker Om Birla cited precedents to say that the Constitution amendment Bill can be discussed with other Bills as they relate to the same subject. Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” women’s quota law before the 2029 polls.