Madras HC sets aside over 50% women quota in Chennai Corporation

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu, which passed the order, also directed the state election commission to restrict reservation of seats for women in the urban local bodies to 50% as mandated in law.

The petitioner pointed out that 105 of the 200 seats in the Chennai Corporation have been allocated to women. He argued that the allocation was unconstitutional and a discrimination against men.

The petitioner said a phrase – “not less than 50%” – in the law was being used to allocate reservation for women beyond 50%.

“Of the 200 seats, 105 seats have been reserved for women both in SC and general category. But as per the 50% reservation for women policy, only 84 seats should have been allotted in general category. But flouting the norm, more seats have been allocated discriminating men,” the petitioner said.

The 2016 decision of the state government to increase the quantum of reservation for women in local bodies, from around 33% to 50%, and the delimitation exercise of wards of the local bodies in the recent years, have played a key role in increasing the women representation in Tamil Nadu’s rural local bodies alone – from about 40,000 seats in 2011 to over 62,000 now.