The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Amendment) Bill 2023, also known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, got the Parliament seal on Thursday after the Rajya Sabha passed it unanimously, providing reservation on one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the State Legislatures and the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Bill in the upper house, a day after the Lok Sabha passed it by 454 votes.
The constitutional amendment was passed on the fourth day of the special Parliament Session, with all 214 Rajya Sabha members voting in its favour and no one opposing it. There were no abstentions in the upper house on Thursday.
The proposed bill, in its current form, will be enforced only after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken following the first census conducted after its enactment.
Discussion on the proposed bill started in the upper house at around 11.16 am and went on uninterruptedly for over 12 hours. The Women’s Reservation Bill was formally declared as passed at 11:30 pm with absolute majority.