Women’s Reservation Act Comes Into Force As Parliament Debates 2029 Rollout

The Women’s Reservation Act 2023, which guarantees 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, was formally brought into force on Thursday through a government notification effective from 16 April 2026. The decision came as Parliament debated fresh constitutional amendments aimed at enabling the quota to be implemented before the 2029 general election.

Officials said the notification was necessary because, although the legislation received presidential assent in 2023, it had never been operationalised. As a result, it was not legally in force, creating technical hurdles for any further amendments or implementation measures.

The 2023 law, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, was hailed as a landmark reform to improve women’s representation in legislatures. It reserves one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, including those already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

However, the Act linked implementation to a future delimitation exercise based on the next Census. Since the next nationwide Census and subsequent redrawing of constituencies are yet to take place, the reservation would not have been enforced for several years under the original framework.

To accelerate the process, the government has introduced three Bills now under discussion in the Lok Sabha: the Constitution Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws Bill, 2026. Together, they are intended to clear the way for women’s reservation to take effect in time for the 2029 polls.

One of the key proposals seeks to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 seats. It would also revise the earlier condition that linked women’s reservation specifically to delimitation after the next Census, allowing the quota to be introduced immediately after the delimitation process.

Opposition parties have broadly supported the principle of reserving seats for women, but have raised objections to using the 2011 Census as the basis for delimitation. Critics argue that constituency boundaries should reflect updated population data.

The amendment Bill is expected to be put to a vote in the Lok Sabha, where it will require the support of at least two-thirds of members present and voting, as required for constitutional changes. Meanwhile, officials clarified that although the 2023 Act is now in force, the reservation cannot apply to the current Lok Sabha and will only begin after the required legal and electoral processes are completed.