The special session of Parliament to pass three bills — The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026; Delimitation Bill 2026; Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026 — ended without a fruitful outcome for the Union Government. The Constitution Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha by a united opposition, forcing the government to take back the other two bills. In this explainer, we’ll see how the transpired events affect women’s reservations, why the bill was defeated and what is the way forward.
Women’s reservation and delimitation are two independent exercises, which theoretically could have been done separately. However, the women’s reservation bill, 2023 tied women’s reservation to the delimitation exercise, which was to be based on the first census post-2026. That is the reason delimitation was tied to women’s reservation in the amendments that were proposed in 2026 too.
There is also an argument from the supporters of the bill that sitting men MPs would lose their seats to women if 33 per cent reservation is carved out without increasing the number of seats through delimitation. In the recently concluded special session, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru South constituency, used this argument during the debate in Lok Sabha.
Contrary to public perception, reservation for women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies is already a law in the country since 2023. The women’s reservation bill was passed unanimously in Rajya Sabha (214-0) and with just 2 votes against it in the Lok Sabha (454-2) in 2023.
The 2023 bill said that the women should be given one-third representation (reservation) in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies of the states, (including sub-quotas for SC/ST women). The act also says that the reservation should be implemented after the completion of first census post-2026 and the subsequent delimitation process, both of which are likely to take considerable time. This effectively meant that the reservation for women could be done only in time for the 2034 general elections, a full 11 years after the bill’s enactment.
What the Centre tried to do last week was to move the enforcement of the women’s reservation forward by a few years.
This was proposed to be achieved by (i) delinking the mandate in the 2023 women’s reservation act to use the census taken post-2026 for the delimitation process (ii) increase the number of seats in Lok Sabha to a maximum of 850 seats and (iii) not extending the freeze on the number of seats for states in the Lok Sabha, based on 1971 census.
The major opposition to the bill was because of the alleged intent to accelerate the delimitation process by basing it on 2011 census, in the garb of women’s reservation. The constitutional freeze on the seat sharing of Lok Sabha among states, based on 1971 census. is based on the amendments in 1976 and 2001. The number of seats in Parliament and their distribution to states were frozen for 50 years till the census post-2026. Now, as the freeze is about to lapse, the 2026 bill chose to not extend the freeze any further.
This would have meant that the seats in Lok Sabha would be shared based on 2011 census and can be changed again based on 2027 census leading to a significant reduction in relative strength of the southern states, compared to their more populous northern counterparts. So, the southern states and the united opposition demanded the delinking of the delimitation procedure from the women’s reservation altogether. Moreover, delimitation has been a contentious issue for a few decades due to its potential to profoundly shift the balance of power at the federal level. In addition, some parties demanded that the women’s reservation also ensure a sub-quota for OBC women as well, similar to SC/ST women.
The women’s reservation is still in effect. Even if no new bills are passed in this regard, women’s reservation can be implemented after the delimitation based on Census 2027 in time for the 2034 general elections. With the freeze on delimitation lapsing after the first census post-2026, theoretically the government can proceed with delimitation as per Census 2027.
Meanwhile, if a new draft legislation that delinks the delimitation process altogether from women’s reservation is introduced, the opposition has promised to pass that bill. Already a private member bill for the same has been brought in the Parliament by P Wilson, DMK’s Rajya Sabha MP. If that bill or a similar bill is passed in the next session, then women’s reservation can be implemented in time for 2029 general elections based on the current 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. If not, it will automatically be due for 2034 general election based on the existing legislation.
Published on April 20, 2026
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