Women’s Reservation in Lok Sabha, Assemblies Cannot Happen Till 2026, Know Why

New Delhi: The Women’s Reservation Bill called the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday during the special session of Parliament.

This bill seeks to provide 33 per cent reservations for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. But in reality, this legislation cannot come into effect before 2026.

This legislation can be practically introduced only after the next delimitation exercise, which may happen after the first census to be taken after 2026.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha of the new Parliament building by Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on the second day of the special session.

The bill states that the reservation of seats shall come into effect after delimitation is undertaken after the relevant figures for the first census have been published.

Rotation of the seats reserved for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies shall take place after each subsequent exercise of delimitation.

One-third of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities will be reserved for women.

No two women MPs will be allowed to contest one seat.

The bill excludes reservations for women from the OBC category.

The proposed bill had been pending for nearly 27 years with the last concrete action being its passing in the Rajya Sabha in 2010.