assembly ofa state and the legislative assembly of the national capital 'territory of delhi shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of the constitution (one hundred and eighth amendment) act, 2008: provided that nothing in this article shall affect any representation in the house of the people, the legislative assembly of a state or the legislative assembly of the national capital territory of delhi until the dissolution of the then exiting house, legislative assembly ofa state or the legislative assembly of the national capital territory of delhi, as the case may be" 8, the amendments made to the constitution by the constitution (one hundred and eighth amendment) act, 2008 shall not affect any representation in the house of the people, the legislative assembly of a state or the legislative assembly of the national capital territory of delhi until the dissolution of the house, the legislative assembly of state or the legislative assembly of the national capital territory of delhi, as the case may be, in existence at the commencement of the said act 'amendment not to affect ation in the howse of the people 'or legislative assembly of a state or llegistaive 'assembly of the national caps teititory of delhi 'the issue of empowerment of women has been raised in different fora in the country from time to time, political empowerment of women is rightly perceived as a powerful and indispensable tool for eliminating gender inequality and discrimination the government in its national common minimum programme has stated that it will take lead to introduce legislation for one-third reservation of seats for women in vidhan sabhas and in the lok sabha the aforesaid idea followed by debate amongst the political parties and in intellectuals has paved way in getting the insight in the matter 2 asa first step to achieve the aforesaid objective, reservation for 'women in panchayats and municipalities was provided by insertion of articles 243d and 2431 in the constitution vide the constitution (seventy-third amendment) act, 1992 and the constitution (seventy-fourth amendment) act, 1992, respectively, the next step towards this direction was the introduction of the constitution (eighty-first amendment) bill, 1996 in the eleventh lok sabha on 12th september, 1996 which sought to reserve not less than one-third of total number of seats filled by direct election in the house of the people and in the legislative assemblies of the states for women the said bill was referred to the joint committee of parliament which further strengthened some of the provisions of the bill by extending the provision of reservation for women even in those cases where number of seats was less than three in a state ora union territory the constitution (eighty-first amendment) bill, 1996, as reported by the joint committee, however, lapsed with the dissolution of the eleventh lok sabha, 3 again attempt was made to provide reservation for women in lok sabha and the state assemblies and in the legislative assembly of the national capital territory of dethi for a period of fifteen years from the 'commencement of the proposed enactment, by introducing the constitution (eighty-fourth amendment) bill, 1998 in lok sabha on 14th december, 1998 'the said bill lapsed on the dissolution of the twelfth lok sabha yet, another attempt was made by introducing the constitution (eighty-fifth amendment) bill, 1999 in lok sabha on 23rd december, 1999 but this bill also had not been pursued due to lack of consensus amongst the political parties 4, the government has decided to reintroduce a bill on the lines of the aforesaid bills seeking to provide for reservation for women in the house of the people and in the legislative assemblies of the states this is in fulfillment of the people's mandate 5 the bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid objectives new detut; the sth may, 2008  extracts from the constitution of india'special 239aa = e bs  ae : ' a ; to dain (8) the total number of seats in the legislative assembly, the number of, seats reserved for scheduled castes, the division of the national capital territory into territorial constituencies (including the basis for such division) and all other 'matters relating to the functioning of the legislative assembly shall be regulated by law made by parliament     