Union Cabinet clears draft bill for amendments to Women Reservation Act

The Union Cabinet is learnt to have cleared on Wednesday the draft bill for amendments to the Women’s Reservation Act that will ensure an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women, and its implementation in the 2029 general elections.

Sources privy to the development said that a meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the draft bill for the amendments to the law, Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, more commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Act.

The Government has extended the budget session of Parliament and a special three-day sitting will be held from April 16 to 18, where the amendment bill is expected to be passed.

The provision to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State assemblies was brought by amending the Constitution in 2023, but it would have come into effect after the completion of the delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2027 Census. Therefore, it was expected to come into force only in 2034 if the present law remains as it is.

According to the broad contours available, the number of Lok Sabha seats would be increased from the present 543 to 816, with 273 seats reserved for women. The reservation will also be done on a “vertical basis” with seats allocated for SCs and STs.

The redrawing of the constituencies will be done on the basis of the 2011 census rather than the proposed 2027 census.

A similar exercise will be carried out for State assemblies, where seats will be reserved on a pro-rata basis.

While a Constitution amendment bill will tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, another ordinary bill will amend the Delimitation Act.

Once approved by Parliament, the proposed laws will come into force on March 31, 2029, and will help reserve seats in the next Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing an election rally in Kerala on April 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the NDA Government has given 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies through a law in 2023.

Modi had urged all parties that this is an issue related to women’s empowerment, and so they should, with an open mind and without any political calculations, fully support it and become partners in winning the trust of the country’s mothers and sisters.

In September 2023, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill.

The law is officially known as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act.