Will reserve seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions:

The Tamil Nadu government today informed the Madras High Court that it has decided to reserve seats and offices for women and SC/STs in three-tier Panchayat Raj institutions based on the 2011 census as per the constitutional mandate.
When a PIL filed by DMK raising doubt on the issue came up before the Second Bench of Justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and M V Muralidharan, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Secretary Hans Raj Verma submitted in his counter affidavit that the government would fully abide by the Constitution and provide reservation of seats and offices to women and SC/STs in Panchayati Raj institutions.

In fact, reservation for women has been enhanced from one-third to one-half in the total number of seats and offices in such institutions, he said.
Seats in wards of village panchayats, panchayat union councils and district panchayats are being reserved in proportion to the 2011 population of SC/STs as per the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act and Tamil Nadu Panchayats (reservation of seats and rotation of reserved seats) Rules.
As per the TN Panchayats (Amendment) Act, 2016, 50 per cent reservation for women is being fixed in Panchayati Raj institutions, he submitted.
The counter said delimitation literally means the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial wards in a panchayat. This includes preparing working papers and approval, scrutiny of notifications and draft proposals, conduct of public sittings, preparation of final draft and issue of gazette notification, all of which would consume more time.

"Conduct of elections to panchayats as and when they are due is a constitutional requirement as envisaged under the constitutional framework. Such a requirement cannot be withheld or postponed on the ground that the task of delimitation and readjustment of territorial constituencies has not been undertaken," it said.
Even in the case of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the 42nd Amendment provided that polls need not await till delimitation of constituencies after each census, it said, seeking dismissal of the writ petition.
The bench posted the matter to September 1.