On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a petition that asked for the reservation of seats for women in panchayats, citing that a proxy process is being carried out in which men were voting in support of women, and also asked the petitioner to submit the same file to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Justices S K Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia stated that the SC is not an executive authority to the lawyer who made arguments on behalf of the petitioner, which is an Uttar Pradesh-based social startup. The petitioner's lawyer informed the bench of Justices that the argument relates to the Constitution 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, which deals with the representation of women in rural self-government bodies at the grassroots level.
According to the council, the law has been passed by the legislature over 30 years ago but the implementation has not been carried out so far and also the committee which can look into this matter directly will be the apex court. The SC also asked the concerned lawyer whether this matter has been taken to any government body or not.
The petitioner was allowed to address this matter with the ministry by the apex court while it was deciding the plea. However, allegations have been made that the male members or husbands of those women representatives who were members of Panchayati Raj institutions held real power.
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