The Lok Sabha rejected the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 after it failed to secure the required two-thirds majority, obtaining 298 votes in favour and 230 against. The defeat stalled plans on women’s reservation and the delimitation process.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment) Bill, 2026 failed to obtain the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026, marking a setback to the Centre’s legislative effort to operationalise women’s reservation in legislative bodies and begin the linked delimitation process. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill secured 298 votes in favour and 230 against.
Following the rejection of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, the central government withdrew the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, both of which formed part of the broader legislative framework to implement women’s reservation in Parliament and state Assemblies.
Voting followed two days of intensive debate, during which Opposition members raised objections.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who piloted the Constitutional Amendment and Delimitation Bills, said the measures were designed to enable the rollout of 33% reservation for women without reducing existing seats. He argued that expanding the Lok Sabha and carrying out a fresh delimitation exercise were required to give effect to the 2023 constitutional amendment.
The legislative package was linked to the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, popularly known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.
While the law has already been brought into force, its implementation is contingent on conducting a fresh census and completing the related delimitation exercise.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposed increasing the Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 to 815 seats to ensure women’s reservation could be implemented without reducing the number of existing seats.
The Bill also proposes to amend Article 82 of the Constitution by removing the current condition that delimitation must be carried out based on the first Census conducted after 2026. By deleting the third proviso, the Centre aims to allow delimitation without having to wait for the upcoming Census in 2027.
Along with this, the Delimitation Bill, 2026 proposed a new arrangement to redraw constituencies based on updated population data from 2011. The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 sought to align Union Territories’ representation with these changes.
Delimitation is crucial because it determines the number of seats allotted to each state and how constituency boundaries are drawn. The delimitation process has been frozen since the 1970s, meaning seat allocation has remained unchanged even as populations have shifted. The proposed legislation aimed to end this freeze and allow a fresh redistribution of seats, potentially using 2011 population figures, through a Delimitation Commission. The Commission’s decisions on seat allocation, boundaries, and reservation would have been final and legally binding.
Had the Bills been passed, the women’s reservation framework would have come into effect from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
During the debate, Opposition members objected both at the stage of introduction and during consideration. Members of the Samajwadi Party opposed the Bills, arguing that they did not provide reservation for Muslim and backward-class women.
The vote follows a day after the Union Government notified the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, which brought into effect the provisions for 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies from April 16, 2026. Although the 2023 law had received Presidential assent, it remained inactive because it depended on a separate notification under Section 1(2) to start operating.
Under the amended version enacted in 2023, the women’s reservation was linked to a delimitation exercise to be conducted after the first Census held following the law. As a result, implementation was postponed until a future Census and the subsequent realignment of constituencies.