The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill proposes one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. Critically, the reservation will not activate immediately upon enactment — it takes effect only after the next delimitation exercise and subsequent census. Home Minister Amit Shah noted that delimitation will also increase reserved seats for SCs and STs. The Bill thus passes Parliament yet leaves implementation contingent on future administrative processes.

The 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill operationalises what the 106th Amendment Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) inserted as Articles 330A and 332A into the Constitution, reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and the NCT of Delhi. The doctrinal significance is the built-in deferral mechanism: the reservation cannot be operationalised until (a) a fresh census is conducted and (b) a delimitation exercise is completed based on that census data. This two-stage conditionality is constitutionally embedded, meaning a future Parliament cannot simply 'switch on' reservation without satisfying those preconditions.

The reservation is to be rotated among constituencies after each delimitation, ensuring no single constituency is permanently reserved. Seats reserved for SCs and STs under Articles 330 and 332 will be included within the one-third women's quota, not added on top of it.

The constitutional amendment required ratification under Article 368(2) by a special majority of Parliament plus ratification by at least half of State Legislatures — a procedural rigour that underscores its significance. The reservation is set to last for fifteen years initially, after which Parliament may extend or discontinue it.

For CLAT PG aspirants, the key doctrinal questions concern: (i) which articles were inserted or amended; (ii) the conditionality of implementation (census + delimitation); (iii) the interaction with existing SC/ST reservations; and (iv) the fifteen-year sunset clause.