The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2008, that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill in its original form with minor changes, authoritative sources told The Hindu after the meeting.
The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and was subsequently referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Personnel, which in its report submitted in December last year had recommended its early passage in the present form saying that the decision should not be left to the discretion of parties.
The future course of action will be decided in consultation with the Speaker at the Business Advisory Committee meeting, as the Bill is the property of the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill has been pending since more than a decade with repeated attempts to arrive at a consensus proving futile as some political parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal , the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal (United) demanding reservation for women from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), to make it more inclusive.
They contended that unless reservation was provided to OBC women, it would remain confined to women from the elite classes.
Earlier in the day, a 20-member delegation of women MPs called on President Pratibha Patil to impress upon her to ensure the early passage of the Bill.