Amendment to cap 50% women quota in panchayat polls unconstitutional: Karan Dalal

The amendment means that their right to contest on all the seats which were not reserved has been snatched away, he said

Former Haryana minister Karan Singh Dalal on Wednesday urged the governor to get the Haryana Panchayati Raj (second amendment) Act, providing 50% reservation to the women in panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), annulled as it is “unconstitutional and discriminatory.”

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In a memorandum submitted to Raj Bhavan, Dalal, who is a former Congress MLA from Palwal, said that it is unfortunate that the right of women to contest has been restricted to 50% by the present government by amending the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act. The amendment means that their right to contest on all the seats which were not reserved has been snatched away, he said.

“Many states have increased the reservation for women to 50%. As a result of this, the representation of women has gone up to 55% in Uttarakhand as many women were elected from unreserved seats too,’’ the Congress leader said.

Dalal said the rationale behind Article 243-D of the Constitution was to empower women and make the local governance institutions more inclusive and participatory. “The basic idea of providing reservation was to facilitate more women at grassroots democracy to participate in public life. But the present government has diminished the rationale behind the amendment in the Constitution. The rationale behind 50% reservation for women should mean that not less than half of the total seats should be filled by women. It does not mean they can contest only the reserved 50% seats,’’ he said.

The former minister said the state government has completely changed the meaning of this provision by amending the Act and capping the participation of women to 50% in the local bodies. In such case, their political representation in the panchayati raj institutions cannot exceed more than 50% at any point of time, which is a clear case of gender bias.