Dimapur, Jan. 17: Chief minister TR Zeliang has claimed that conducting elections to urban local bodies with 33% seat reservation for women was a constitutional obligation from which the state government could not escape.
A press statement from the chief minister’s office on Tuesday reported Zeliang as saying ‘reservation for women in ULBs was not brought about by any enactment of the Parliament or the state legislature but is a constitutional provision as provided by Article 243 T of the constitution of India.’
He was stated to be addressing NPF candidates from 9 town councils this afternoon at Kohima at the party Head Office.
“Had we complained before the provision of the constitution was incorporated in 1993, Nagaland perhaps could be exempted from reservation for women in ULBs. But now, it is too late since Article 243 T is already a constitutional provision which we cannot do away with,” he was quoted as saying.
According to the report, Zeliang also “clarified” the “misconception” that the state Assembly could do away with all laws and rules of the central government if Nagas do not want them.
“Article 243 T which gives reservation for women in ULBs is not an Act of the Parliament which Nagaland Legislative Assembly can decide whether to adopt or not – it is an Article of the Constitution of India which we cannot decide whether it should be applied to Nagaland or not. As long as we are part of the Union of India, the constitution of India will be binding on us and we cannot deny this fact. And debating over an Article of the constitution of India whether we should apply it or not is a futile exercise,” he was reported as saying.
The resolution adopted by the Nagaland Assembly in 2012 has been questioned by legal luminaries on the grounds that only the Parliament is competent to exempt any state from the purview of any part of the constitution of India and so the Assembly had to withdraw that resolution last year to rectify the legal anomaly, the CMO reported quoted Zeliang.
