17 April 2026 Legal Updates

Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam

Background - A 27-Year Struggle

• The demand for women's political reservation goes back to 1996, when the idea was first introduced as the 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill. It was defeated then and languished for nearly 27 years before finally passing as the 106th Amendment Act in 2023.
• Various bills to reserve seats for women in Parliament and state assemblies were introduced in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2008. The first three bills lapsed due to the dissolution of their respective Lok Sabhas. The 2008 bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha but lapsed when the 15th Lok Sabha dissolved.
• The trigger for action was stark numbers. The 2023 composition of the Lok Sabha revealed a severe underrepresentation of women, who constituted less than 15% of its members. Similarly, in many state assemblies - including Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and others - the representation of women fell below 10%. The presence of female MPs in the Lok Sabha has grown only gradually, from a mere 5% in the 1st Lok Sabha to 14% in the 17th.

Objective - Why Was It Passed?

• The core objective is correcting the deep gender imbalance in Indian democracy. The legislation mandates the reservation of one-third of the total seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women, to ensure greater political participation and foster a more inclusive and equitable governance structure.
• India is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which mandates the eradication of gender-based discrimination in political and public spheres. The 106th Constitutional Amendment is a direct response to these international commitments, ensuring that women's voices are actively included in the governance of the nation.
• There was also strong precedent at the grassroots level. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts of 1992 had already mandated the reservation of one-third of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies. Many states like Maharashtra, Bihar, and Kerala have since gone further and legally provided 50% reservation for women in local bodies.

What Does the Act Actually Do? - Constitutional Changes

The Act makes the following specific changes to the Constitution:

1. Amendment to Article 239AA (Delhi)

The Act inserts clauses (ba), (bb), and (bc) into Article 239AA, reserving seats for women in the Delhi Legislative Assembly — including one-third of SC-reserved seats and one-third of total seats overall.

2. New Article 330A - Lok Sabha (House of the People)

Reserves one-third of all Lok Sabha seats for women. This includes one-third of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, ensuring women from these communities also benefit.

3. New Article 332A - State Assemblies

Extends the same one-third reservation to the Legislative Assembly of every State, again including SC/ST-reserved seats within that quota.

4. New Article 334A - When It Takes Effect

• This is a critical and somewhat controversial clause. The reservation will come into force only after the first delimitation exercise conducted after the relevant census figures (post-2023) are published, and will remain in effect for 15 years from that point.
• Additionally, the seats reserved for women will rotate among different constituencies after each delimitation exercise, and the rotation process will be governed by a law made by Parliament.

5. Section 6 - Savings Clause

The Act makes clear that existing Houses are not disturbed - the amendments will not affect the composition of any House until it is dissolved.

When Will It Actually Come Into Effect?

This is the most debated aspect of the law. On 20 September 2023, Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah informed Parliament that the census and the delimitation exercise will take place after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The census has been delayed since 2021 (due to COVID), so the actual implementation is still some years away. The reservation is unlikely to take effect before the 2029 general elections at the earliest.

Key Debates and Concerns

Despite its near-unanimous passage, the Act has attracted several criticisms:

• No OBC sub-quota: Demands for internal reservation provisions for women of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) persisted but remained unfulfilled.
• Deferred implementation: The Opposition proposed amendments to implement the law immediately in 2024 itself, but these were unsuccessful.
• Proxy representation risk: Without deeper political reforms, there is a possibility that women representatives might act as nominal heads with real power exercised by male relatives — similar to the "Sarpanch Pati" phenomenon seen at the Panchayat level.
• No coverage of Upper Houses: The Act makes no provision for reservations in the Rajya Sabha or State Legislative Councils.

Why Is It Historically Important?

• The passage of the 106th Amendment is widely viewed as the culmination of a struggle spanning almost 27 years and is considered a collective victory for all political parties, women's groups, and activists who kept the issue alive despite repeated setbacks.
• The bill was passed unanimously on 21 September 2023 in the Rajya Sabha after an 11-hour debate, a day after it cleared the Lok Sabha. No Member of Parliament abstained, with 100% votes in favour.
• In practical terms, the bill aims to increase the number of women parliamentarians to 181 — more than doubling the current number — which would be a transformational shift in the composition of Indian democracy.
• In summary, the 106th Amendment is a landmark constitutional reform that formally guarantees women one-third representation in Parliament and all state legislatures. While its actual impact depends on when the census and delimitation are completed, it permanently embeds gender equity into the structure of India's democracy.