‘Shameful for any welfare state to defeat rights of women’: Supreme Court pulls up Nagaland
The Supreme Court was reproaching the Nagaland government over a delay in implementing 33% reservation for women in urban local bodies.
It is “shameful” for a welfare State to defeat the rights of women, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, while reproaching the Nagaland government over delay in implementing 33% reservation for women in urban local bodies.

Taking umbrage at the electoral process moving at a snail’s pace, a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said that the state government must realise that it is only fulfilling a statutory and constitutional obligation, and not doing any favour to women.
“We have no trust in the state government...12 years! Something which could have been automatically done requires so much effort. This is very sad...shocking state of affairs,” remarked the bench, pointing out that the state made the law in 2016 for 33% reservation for women in local bodies. The court also noted that petitioners, NGO PUCL and woman activist Rosemary Dvuchu, were before the court for almost a decade to make the state act.
The court added: “It is shameful to defeat the right of women like this. Will they wait for a lifetime for you to do something? We are shocked how you can do this. How can any welfare state do this?”
Lamenting that the whole idea of gender equality can be destroyed by depriving women of their legitimate rights, including the right of representation, the bench further observed: “You talk about gender equality. This is the part of the country where women are educated. They are independent, financially and socially responsible, and have contributed to the economy of this country. And this is how you treat the matter.”
Representing the state, Nagaland’s advocate general KN Balagopal tried to mollify the bench by submitting that the state is on board with implementing 33% reservation for women in municipal and town councils, and has also given its approval to the state election commission for going ahead with this. He added that it is now for the election commission to issue a notification for polls.
But the bench noted that the approval from the state was received by the election commission only on July 12 – two days before the scheduled hearing of the case in the top court. “You talk as if you are doing them a favour whereas you have actually been defeating their rights for so long,” retorted the bench.
“At each stage, there has been a delay on the state’s part, which appears to be an endeavour to defeat the rights of women. Only when the matter is taken by the court, something is done. The notification has now been issued by the state election commission, belatedly, on account of the failure of the state. We call upon the state to strictly follow the schedule,” said the court.
As the advocate general requested the bench not to record adverse statements against the state in the order, the bench replied that it does not trust the state at all. “You have done it for so long and we don’t trust you at all. We will monitor this at every stage. We are going to monitor each and every step till such the time election is not over.”
The court directed the state election commission to act swiftly and issue the poll notification within two weeks. It asked the commission to also file an affidavit in the court on the timeline and fixed the matter for hearing next on July 29.
Dvuchu initially challenged a resolution passed by the Nagaland Assembly on September 22, 2012 exempting operation of Part IX-A of the Constitution that mandates 33% reservation for women in municipal and town councils in the state.
This resolution was withdrawn by the assembly in November 2016 but the reservation hasn’t been implemented yet. Rights group, PUCL, along with social activist Abeiu Meru has been pursuing the case since 2016.
In its submissions to the top court earlier this year, the Nagaland government said that elections for municipal councils with reservation for women were held in 2008, 2009 and 2012 after an amendment to the Nagaland Municipal Act in 2006 envisaged 33% reservation for women -- but that this had to be suspended owing to mass violence and protests by various tribal groups against such quota.
Local elections with quotas for women were notified again in February 2017 after the withdrawal of the resolution in 2016 but the decision ensued a chaos in the state as government buildings were burnt down and the entire state machinery brought to a standstill for three weeks during January 31-February 22, 2017 due to the protests and shutdowns. Two civilians also died in the violence, claimed the state’s note.
In February, the Supreme Court gave the state government six weeks to report back on how it proposed to implement the 33% reservation rule. On April 12, the Nagaland government informed the bench that the state government has passed a resolution to implement the reservation. On that day, the state election commission asked for two months for the summary revision of electoral rolls, which also required certain information and approvals from the state government. The court then adjourned the case to July.
