01 Read
What happened
The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, reserves one-third of seats for women in Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the NCT of Delhi Assembly. However, the reservation will not activate until after the next delimitation exercise following the first census conducted after the Act's commencement. Home Minister Amit Shah has noted that delimitation will also increase SC and ST seats proportionally. The practical effect is that women's reservation cannot begin before 2029 at the earliest, likely later.
02 Understand
Why it matters
The 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023, popularly called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, inserts Articles 330A and 332A into the Constitution, providing one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies respectively. It also amends Article 239AA to extend the reservation to the Delhi Assembly.
The critical constitutional mechanism is the deferral condition: the reservation becomes operative only after the delimitation of constituencies that follows the first census taken after the Act's commencement. Since the decennial census was delayed (last conducted in 2011; the 2021 census is still pending), and delimitation can only follow census completion, operational implementation cannot happen before the 2029 general elections and may extend further.
Within the reserved seats, one-third must be sub-allocated for SC and ST women, tracking the existing SC/ST reservation framework under Articles 330 and 332. The rotation of reserved constituencies will occur after every delimitation, preventing perpetual lock-in of any constituency.
Constitutionally, this amendment required a special majority under Article 368(2) — a two-thirds majority of members present and voting in each House, plus a majority of the total membership of each House. Ratification by State Legislatures was not required because it does not affect the federal distribution of legislative powers under Articles 368(2) proviso read with Articles 245-246.
The amendment revives a three-decade-old legislative demand first introduced as the 81st Amendment Bill in 1996 under the H.D. Deve Gowda government, which lapsed, and was re-introduced multiple times before finally passing in September 2023.
The critical constitutional mechanism is the deferral condition: the reservation becomes operative only after the delimitation of constituencies that follows the first census taken after the Act's commencement. Since the decennial census was delayed (last conducted in 2011; the 2021 census is still pending), and delimitation can only follow census completion, operational implementation cannot happen before the 2029 general elections and may extend further.
Within the reserved seats, one-third must be sub-allocated for SC and ST women, tracking the existing SC/ST reservation framework under Articles 330 and 332. The rotation of reserved constituencies will occur after every delimitation, preventing perpetual lock-in of any constituency.
Constitutionally, this amendment required a special majority under Article 368(2) — a two-thirds majority of members present and voting in each House, plus a majority of the total membership of each House. Ratification by State Legislatures was not required because it does not affect the federal distribution of legislative powers under Articles 368(2) proviso read with Articles 245-246.
The amendment revives a three-decade-old legislative demand first introduced as the 81st Amendment Bill in 1996 under the H.D. Deve Gowda government, which lapsed, and was re-introduced multiple times before finally passing in September 2023.
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