Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi on Tuesday asserted the introduction of Women's Reservation Bill in was put off after all political parties expressed their desire to defer its tabling.
Joshi added that an all-party consensus will have to be evolved before any further attempts are made to introduce the Bill in the Lower House. He informed reporters that an all-party meeting will be called 'as soon as possible' to discuss the Bill 'threadbare'.
He said the bill 'most probably' would not be introduced in the current session of Parliament, which ends on Friday. "It would be difficult to take up the Bill till fullest attempts are made to evolve a consensus or unless the ruling party and the opposition insist," Joshi told the television channel NDTV 24X7.
Asked whether the bill could not be taken up on the pattern of POTA, as the BJP and the main opposition Congress party favoured it, Joshi said, "It is not impossible to push a bill in that manner, but all parties thought it better to defer it today."
He justified deferring the introduction of the Bill pointing out that in a democracy even the smallest party was important.
