Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “We will not disclose now as to what the (critical) Bill is, but we will bring up one very important business in the second part (of the Union Minister of Budget Session).” File
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The government, sources said, has reached out to several Opposition leaders, seeking their opinion on bringing an amendment to advance the timeline on the implementation of the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which seeks to allocate 33% of the seats to directly elected legislative bodies, including the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, for women.
The legislation, more commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 was passed by Parliament in a special session, the first one in the new Parliament building, on September 21, 2023. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill with 454 votes in favour and two against. The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill unanimously, with 214 votes in favour and none against.
Section 5 of the Act states that the reservation for women will come into effect “after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first Census taken after commencement of Act…” The Union Cabinet cleared the decks for the Census on December 12, 2025, to be undertaken in two phases — “houselisting and housing census” — between April and September 2026, and population enumeration in February 2027. The timeline for delimitation, which is expected to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats, continues to be ambiguous.
Sources in the government confirmed to The Hinduthat “informal feelers” had been sent to several Opposition leaders, seeking their opinion on introducing the amendments to Act, removing the necessity to wait for the completion of the Census, which in turn would help in initiating the delimitation exercise.
Opinion | Parliament’s historic law, an extended wait for women
“We have sent messages informally on this; nothing formal or even suggestions from our side have been shared. If there is a formal movement on this, it will be shared,” a senior source in the government said. The source did not clarify the fate of a delimitation exercise or whether there were any thoughts on the implementation of the Act before the exercise.
Speaking to reporters at Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on February 15 had stated that the second part of the Budget Session, which began on Monday (March 9, 2026), would be “interesting” as several “important” legislations and a “critical” Bill, would be presented in Parliament for debate and passage. “We will bring some important Bills, including one critical Bill. We will not disclose now as to what the Bill is, but we will bring up one very important business in the second part. We will pass all these Bills,” Mr. Rijiju had said.
The ambiguity in the timeline of the legislation’s implementation was the main thrust of the Opposition’s criticism during the debate on the law in Parliament. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, speaking during the debate, had said that there was no need to “link women’s reservation with Census and delimitation”. He had criticised the government that by placing these two conditions, the Bill could turn out to be a mere “jumla”.
Of the total members in the 17th Lok Sabha, 15% are women, while in the State Assemblies, women on average constitute 9% of the total members.
Published – March 09, 2026 10:28 pm IST
