Overview
- A Supreme Court bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice to the Union government on Dr. Jaya Thakur’s PIL seeking immediate enforcement of the 33% reservation for women without waiting for census and delimitation.
- The petition targets Article 334A’s contingency linking the quota to the first post‑enactment census and a subsequent delimitation, asking the court to strike the condition as void to enable prompt rollout.
- The bench called women the country’s “largest minority,” citing roughly 48% of the population and persistent under‑representation, with about 75 women in the 543‑member Lok Sabha and 42 in the 250‑member Rajya Sabha.
- Reiterating judicial limits, the court said enforcement lies with the executive and that it can at most seek the government’s proposed schedule for delimitation; no hearing date was fixed after issuing notice.
- Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in September 2023, providing a 15‑year reservation term once implemented, while media reports note the next census is expected in 2027, suggesting implementation could occur by 2029 or later.