The 2023 Women’s Reservation Act, which provides for 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, was brought into force on Thursday through a notification issued by the Union Law Ministry.

A gazette notification states that the provisions of the 2023 Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act came into effect from April 16.

The move comes while Parliament is debating fresh constitutional amendments related to the same law, including proposals to modify its implementation timeline.

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The constitutional amendments will need to be cleared in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by a special majority, or two-thirds of the members present and voting. The ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, and will depend on the support of other parties to get the amendments passed.

Although the 2023 Act received presidential assent that year, it had not been operational because its commencement was contingent on a date to be notified by the Union Government.

Despite the law now being in force, its provisions cannot be implemented immediately.

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According to the law, seats for women will be reserved after the completion of the delimitation exercise, which will be based on the first Census conducted after the passage of the bill. Under the original framework, this would likely delay implementation until well after 2027.

However, the timing of the notification has drawn attention, as Parliament is currently considering constitutional amendment bills aimed at enabling earlier implementation of the quota, potentially by 2029.

These proposals include changes linked to delimitation, or redrawing the boundaries of electoral constituencies, and an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats.

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A three-day special session of Parliament to discuss these bills began on Thursday.

The Opposition has questioned the decision to notify the 2023 law during an ongoing Parliamentary debate on its amendment.

Congress described the move as “absolutely bizarre”, with Jairam Ramesh highlighting that the law had been brought into force even as amendments to it were under discussion and due for a vote.

Congress MP Manish Tewari told The Indian Express that the notification could be an attempt to preserve the existing law in case the proposed amendments fail to secure the required parliamentary majority.

Delimitation bill

The Union government is seeking to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 815 from 543 and to operationalise the 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies under the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act.

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The Opposition INDIA bloc has said that while it supports women’s reservation, it will oppose the bill for delimitation of Lok Sabha seats.

Opposition parties have said that population-based delimitation would give an undue advantage to northern and central states in the Lok Sabha, as the proportion of seats in the North would be higher. They also noted that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has greater support in northern states than in the South.

Although speculation about the amendment to the law had been rife in political circles for the past two weeks, copies of the draft legislation were shared with MPs for the first time on Tuesday.

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Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is completed, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to each state must be adjusted based on changes in its population.

The current composition of the Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 Census. According to the 84th Amendment Act of 2001, constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026.

The census, which began on April 1, is expected to conclude in 2027.

The bill that will be introduced in Parliament proposes to amend Article 82 of the Constitution to remove the entire proviso. This will pave the way for delimitation to take place based on the latest census, which was held in 2011.

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