Women ‘largest minority’ of India, why not give them representation without reservation, SC asks

The Supreme Court described women as the “largest minority” in India whose presence in the Parliament is steadily receding.

“Why not give women representation even without reservation?” Justice B.V. Nagarathna, heading a two-judge Bench and the Supreme Court’s sole woman judge, observed on Monday (November 10, 2025)

The Bench, also comprising Justice R. Mahadevan, was hearing a petition filed by Dr. Jaya Thakur challenging the provisions of the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ or the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, granting 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

The law was assented to by President Droupadi Murmu in September 2023, but is yet to be implemented, senior advocate Shobha Gupta and advocate Varun Thakur, submitted in court.

“Why delay the ‘vandan’?” Ms. Gupta asked.

“This [the Constitutional amendment] was an instance of giving women political justice. Political justice is on par with social and economic justice. Women are the largest minority in the country. Women form 48.44% of the total population,” Justice Nagarathna observed.

Justice Nagarathna also pointed to Article 15(3) of the Constitution which mandates the State to take affirmative action and make special provisions for the empowerment of women. The court issued notice to the Union government through the Home and Law Ministries

The provisions of the 2023 law would be implemented only after the conduct of the next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise — redrawing of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies — to determine seats to be reserved for women. The quota for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies would continue for 15 years and Parliament could later extend the benefit period.

“A Constitutional amendment cannot be held back for an uncertain period… For the last 75 years there has been no adequate representation of women in the Parliament as well as in the State Legislatures. This has been a long-pending demand for decades,” the petition submitted.

“When is the next census? Any date for the census?” Justice Nagarathna asked.

Ms. Gupta said the Act did not give any specific time period about the census or the delimitation exercise. The senior counsel echoed the court’s oral observation about the need for census as a pre-condition to reserve seats for women.

Justice Nagarathna said the census would quantify the population, based on which the seats would be scientifically reserved for women. Ms. Gupta said this exercise of identifying seats ought to have been done before the Act came into force.

The petitioner had referred to the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments of 1993 which gave women one-third representation in local body elections. Dr. Thakur had drawn the court’s attention to the 77th constitutional amendment extending reservations for promotions in jobs for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Finally, the petition had highlighted the recent implementation of the 10% EWS reservation for poor forward caste sections of the society in educational institutions and public employment. It said all these amendments were given effect without calling for census data.