One Hundred and Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of India

The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, popularly titled the Nārī Śakti Vandan Adhiniyam, establishes a framework to reserve, as nearly as may be, one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the Legislative Assemblies of the States, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Enacted by Parliament in September 2023 and assented to by the President on 28 September 2023, the measure provides a time-bound constitutional guarantee of women’s representation, linked to the post-census delimitation cycle and subject to rotation of reserved constituencies.

Background and Evolution

The question of guaranteed representation for women has been debated since the Constituent Assembly era, where women members advocated broader inclusion even as the Constitution entrenched equality and non-discrimination. From the 1990s, successive attempts to legislate a one-third reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies were made, mirroring the successful 73rd and 74th Amendments that reserved seats for women in rural and urban local bodies. Bills introduced in 1996, 1997, 1998 and thereafter faced dissolution of the Lok Sabha or a lack of cross-party consensus, notwithstanding periodic support in one House.
By the late 2010s, empirical trends highlighted a persistent under-representation of women in legislatures. Women’s membership in the Lok Sabha rose gradually—from around 5% in the First Lok Sabha to roughly 14% in the Seventeenth Lok Sabha—yet remained comparatively low against global and regional benchmarks. Several State Assemblies recorded women’s representation below 10%, underscoring a structural representational deficit that political parties and civil society sought to address through a constitutional route rather than relying exclusively on internal party quotas or candidate-selection reforms.

Legislative Passage and Political Context

The Government introduced The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 during a Special Session of Parliament in September 2023, the first substantive business taken up in the new Parliament building. The Bill secured overwhelming majorities in both Houses—454–2 in the Lok Sabha and unanimously in the Rajya Sabha—reflecting broad political alignment on the principle of women’s reservation even amidst divergent views on timing and design details. Following passage, the Bill received Presidential assent on 28 September 2023, thereby becoming the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023.
Debate in both Houses addressed implementation sequencing, the relationship with the long-pending Census and delimitation, and whether additional sub-quotas (for instance, for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes) ought to be integrated within the women’s quota. While there was near-universal endorsement of the core objective, parties and individual members expressed differing views on immediacy, sub-categorisation, and administrative preparedness.

Constitutional Architecture and Key Provisions

The amendment inserts and modifies constitutional provisions to operationalise women’s reservation at the national and sub-national legislative levels. Its principal features include:

• Extent and Coverage: Reservation of one-third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the Lok Sabha, the Legislative Assemblies of the States, and the Legislative Assembly of the NCT of Delhi. The amendment’s coverage is legislative bodies elected through territorial constituencies; it does not extend to the Rajya Sabha or State Legislative Councils.
• Internal Reservation for SCs/STs: Within seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, one-third of those reserved seats are earmarked for women belonging to SCs/STs, ensuring intersectional representation.
• Rotation of Reserved Constituencies: Reserved constituencies are to rotate after each delimitation, preventing entrenchment of reservation in specific seats and distributing the representational opportunity across constituencies over time.
• Time-Bound Operation: The reservation is designed to operate for 15 years from commencement, with a provision allowing Parliament to extend the period by law if it deems fit based on experience and outcomes.
• Condition-Linked Commencement: The reservation becomes operational after two enabling steps: the publication of the Census figures and the subsequent delimitation of constituencies on those figures. This sequencing places implementation on a constitutional timetable aligned with population data and constituency re-drawing.

Implementation Mechanism and Timeline Linkages

Implementation hinges on two constitutionally significant administrative processes:

1. Census Publication: The next all-India Census provides the demographic basis for representation. Upon publication of Census results, constitutional triggers for representation adjustments are met.
2. Delimitation Exercise: Delimitation commissions, established under statute, redraw constituency boundaries and allocate seats to reflect population changes. Women’s reservation and its rotation are superimposed upon the post-delimitation map, ensuring both numeric allocation (one-third) and fair geographic spread over cycles.

The amendment thus avoids mid-cycle alterations that might disrupt electoral rolls or constituency familiarity; instead, it embeds women’s reservation within the regular redistricting cadence, promoting administrative clarity and electoral predictability.

Statistical Context and Representational Deficit

Prior to enactment, the Seventeenth Lok Sabha had 78 women among 542 elected members (approximately 14%). Several large States—spanning the south, west, and north-east—recorded women’s representation in single digits in their Assemblies. The amendment’s formulation—“as nearly as may be” one-third—acknowledges integer constraints in seat counts, while signalling a substantial uplift in absolute numbers. If applied to the current Lok Sabha size, one-third would translate to approximately 181 women MPs, marking a step-change in descriptive representation and, potentially, in policy salience for gender-responsive legislation and oversight.

Parliamentary Debate: Themes and Concerns

Parliamentary discussions surfaced recurring themes:

• Immediacy versus Sequencing: Several members urged immediate operationalisation, whereas the Government emphasised constitutional regularity via the census–delimitation pathway to ensure durable implementation and equitable rotation.
• Sub-Categorisation within the Women’s Quota: Proposals to embed OBC or other sub-quotas within the one-third reservation generated debate. Supporters argued for layered equity to ensure inclusion of marginalised women; others cautioned against complexity within a constitutional amendment and suggested such calibrations be addressed through separate policy instruments or subsequent legislation.
• Federal Reach: The inclusion of the Delhi Assembly within the constitutional text, contrasted with the position of other Union Territories, prompted attention to the appropriate vehicles for extending analogous reservation to UT legislatures, where applicable.

Despite divergences on these issues, the Houses converged on passing the amendment with very high margins, reflecting a political consensus on the central objective.

Advantages, Design Choices, and Administrative Considerations

The amendment’s design presents several advantages:

• Constitutional Certainty: Entrenchment in the Constitution minimises the risk of reversal and ensures uniformity across States and Union Territories covered by the text.
• Integrated with Delimitation: Tying commencement and rotation to delimitation yields manageable implementation, reduces litigation risk, and enables long-run distribution of reserved status across constituencies.
• Intersectional Earmarking: The carve-out for SC/ST women within existing reserved seats enhances representational diversity and aligns with equality jurisprudence that recognises compounded disadvantage.

Administrative considerations include the need for capacity building of parties to recruit and support women candidates at scale, voter education in newly reserved constituencies, and transparent criteria for rotation to preserve fairness and predictability.

Criticism and Debates Outside Parliament

Critiques focus on three broad axes:

• Timing and Conditionality: Linking commencement to future census and delimitation is viewed by some as deferring benefits; advocates for immediacy argue that interim mechanisms could have been devised. Supporters counter that constitutional coherence and sustainable rotation justify the sequencing.
• Absence of Explicit OBC Sub-Quota: Some parties and commentators argue that without a specific OBC quota within the one-third reservation, the benefits may accrue disproportionately to relatively advantaged groups of women. Others respond that party nomination strategies, alongside the SC/ST earmarking already provided, can address equity concerns without complicating the constitutional text.
• Urban–Rural and Elite Bias Concerns: Skeptics suggest reserved seats may preferentially produce candidates from urban or more educated backgrounds. Proponents point to the experience of panchayats and municipalities, where reservations have diversified representation, often drawing first-time women leaders from rural and marginalised communities.

Subsequent Developments and Related Measures

The constitutional design directly covers the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and Delhi Assembly. For other Union Territories with legislatures, Parliament retains the competence to extend analogous reservations by statute, tailoring the framework to local constitutional arrangements. Complementary legal changes may therefore be used to harmonise women’s reservation across UT legislatures while preserving the amendment’s core architecture.

Significance and Expected Impact

The One Hundred and Sixth Amendment marks a transformative intervention in India’s representative democracy. By anchoring a one-third floor for women’s seats and integrating it with the delimitation cycle, the Constitution now provides a clear pathway to substantially increase women’s descriptive representation. Comparative evidence from local government reservations suggests potential gains in substantive representation, including higher prioritisation of public goods and social sector outcomes, though realisation will depend on party-level candidate development, leadership pipelines, and institutional support within legislatures.
In the long term, the amendment is poised to recalibrate legislative culture, normalise the presence of women as constituency representatives, and catalyse broader changes in political recruitment and policy agendas. While debates on sub-quotas and timing are likely to continue, the constitutional settlement establishes a robust baseline for inclusion, signalling a durable commitment to women-led development and parity-oriented democratic deepening.