Reserved political positions in India

An electorate is a group of voters, namely, all the officially qualified voters within a particular country or area or for a particular election. A joint electorate is one where the entire voting population of a country or region is part of a single electorate, and the entire electorate votes for the candidates who contest in the elections.

In the case of separate electorates, the voting population of a country or region is divided into different electorates, based on certain factors such as religion, caste, gender, and occupation. Here, members of each electorate votes only to elected representatives for their electorate. Separate electorates are usually demanded by minorities who feel it would otherwise be difficult for them to get fair representation in government. For example, separate electorate for Muslims means that Muslims will choose their separate leader by separate elections for Muslims.[1]

In India's pre-independence era, when the Muslims in India demanded fair representation in power-sharing with the British government along with the Hindus in 1906, the British government provided for a separate electorate system for the Muslims in Indian Council Act, 1909. As a result, of the total 250 seats of the Bengal Legislative Assembly, 117 seats were kept reserved for the Muslims. Accordingly, the general elections of 1937 were held on the basis of the extended separate electorates, where only the Muslims voted for the 117 seats, in Bengal.

Again, in the Round Table Conferences in 1930-32, the concept of separate electorates for the Untouchables (SC/ST) was raised by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, as a way to ensure sufficient representation for the minority SC/ST communities, in government. This provision was strongly opposed by Gandhi on the grounds that the move would disintegrate Hindu society. If the SC/ST communities were given a separate electorate, then certain constituencies would have been reserved for them, and only the people belonging to SC/ST communities would have been able to vote for the candidates contesting those seats, thus alienating the rest of the Hindus. Finally, a compromise was reached with Ambedkar and Gandhi with the Poona Pact in which the parties agreed that certain constituencies would be reserved for the SC/ST communities, where the people belonging to SC/ST communities could elect 4 candidates per constituency who would then be candidates for election by the joint electorate.

The Anglo-Indian community were the only community in India that had its own representatives nominated to the Lok Sabha (lower house) in Parliament of India. This right was secured from Jawaharlal Nehru by Frank Anthony, the first and longtime president of the All India Anglo-Indian Association. The President can nominate two Anglo-Indian member to the Lok Sabha. The states of 13 India states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal also had a nominated member each in their respective State Legislative Assemblies.[2]

The Article 334 of the Indian Constitution gave reservation to the Anglo-Indian community during the creation of the Constitution, the article 334 also says that this reservation would cease to exist 20 years after the commencement of the Constitution. But this reservation was extended to 1970 through the 5th Amendment. The period of reservation was extended to 1980 through 23rd amendment and then to 1990 through 45th amendments, to 2006 through 62th amendment, to 2010 through 79th amendments and to 2020 through the 95th Amendment.[3] In January 2020, the Anglo-Indian reserved seats in the Parliament and State Legislatures of India were abolished by the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019.[4][5] The reason cited by the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who introducing the Bill in the Lok Sabha is that the Anglo-Indians population in India was just 296 in the 2011 Census, though the number is disputed.[6]

A number of seats in the Parliament of India, State Assemblies, urban and rural-level institutions are reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Though seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, they are elected by all the voters in a constituency, without any separate electorate. Also a member of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is not debarred from contesting a general i.e. non-reserved seat. This system was introduced by the Constitution of India in 1950 and was supposed to be in place for the first 10 years, to ensure participation in politics by these groups which were deemed weak, marginalised, under-represented and needing special protection. Under 104th amendment to the Constitution of India, this reservation is to last until 2030.[7]

The population figure of Scheduled Castes in percentage terms with reference to the total population figure had increased from 14.6% in 1971 census to 16.2% in 2001 census. Similarly, the population figure of Scheduled Tribes had increased from 6.9% in 1971 census to 8.2% in 2001 census. The overall increase of population figure of SC and ST in 2001 census has led the Delimitation Commission to increase the seats for Scheduled Castes in Lok Sabha from 79 to 84 and for Scheduled Tribes from 41 to 47 out of 543 constituencies, as per Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008.

Allocation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha are made on the basis of proportion of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the State concerned to that of the total population, provide provision contained in Article 330 of the Constitution of India read with Section 3 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 .

Women get one-third reservation in Gram Panchayats (meaning Village Assembly, which is a form of local rural government) and Municipal elections. There is a long-term plan to extend this reservation to the Parliament and State Legislative assemblies.

The Women's Reservation Bill proposed in 2008, reserves 33% of all seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women. The Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 9 March 2010.[8] The bill was never voted on Lok Sabha.[9]

The Sikkim was merged with the Union of India in 1975 and the 32 member Sikkim Legislative Assembly has one seat reserved for Buddhist Sangha seat. Only Buddhist monks and nuns belonging to the Six registered Budhist monasteries are eligible to vote for this seat. And 12 seats of the Sikkim legislative Assembly is reserved for the Bhutia and Lepcha ethnic people and 2 seats for Scheduled Castes.[10]

The President of India can nominate 12 members to the Rajya Sabha. These 12 members were personalities who are famous in art, science, literature and social service.[11]

• Reserved political positions
• Proportionate representation

• Third Round Table conference, Poona Pact