Implications of the Constitutional Amendment and Legislative Package on Delimitation and Women’s Reservation
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 (‘Bill’) is set to be tabled and discussed in the Parliament between 16-18 April 2026. While the stated purpose of the Bill is to bring forward the implementation of women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, it also effectively, increases the size of the Lok Sabha and sets the stage for the next delimitation process which will redistribute seats to States for the first time since 1976. This has crucial implications for federalism in India.
This note highlights the key changes and implications of the Bill, including:
- The Bill increases the size of the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850 seats, without providing a clear rationale for either the expansion or the specific number proposed.
- It removes the freeze based on the 1971 Census on the allocation of seats among States in the Lok Sabha, thereby restoring population-based distribution.
- It makes delimitation contingent on Parliament’s discretion through ordinary law, and removes the constitutional obligation to undertake delimitation after every census.
- The Bill delinks the implementation of women’s reservation from the next census, enabling it to be implemented following the proposed delimitation exercise.
- It retains the requirement of rotation of seats reserved for women among constituencies, but removes the obligation that such rotation be undertaken periodically following delimitation.
For more research on delimitation in India and other constitutional questions, explore the work of Charkha, the Constitutional Law Centre at Vidhi, linked below.
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About the Authors
Arghya is the Founder and Research Director at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are constitutional law and regulation of the digital economy. He has served on a number of government committees including the B.N. Srikrishna-led committee of experts on a data protection framework for India. Arghya has a number of academic publications on the Supreme Court and the Constitution in leading law journals such as Law Quarterly Review and Public Law. He is also a columnist at The Telegraph and The Times of India. He is the author of three books: "Independence and Accountability of the Indian Higher Judiciary" (Cambridge, 2019), "Hamīñ Ast? A Biography of Article 370" (co-authored - Navi Books, 2022) and most recently "The Colonial Constitution" (Juggernaut, 2023). Prior to founding Vidhi, he was at Oxford as a Lecturer in Administrative Law at Pembroke College.
Swapnil is the Lead at Charkha (Centre for Constitutional Law) at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are judicial review and constitutional interpretation, with a particular focus on Public Interest Litigation. He read law at the NLU, Jodhpur, and thereafter pursued the BCL and the DPhil at the University of Oxford. He has worked with leading academics on projects involving constitutional reform and democratic transitions, and has also assisted in drafting constitutions for various bodies. His academic writing spans both peer-reviewed journals and public-facing platforms, including a fortnightly column for Bar & Bench titled 'Tryst with the Constitution'. Committed to constitutional literacy, he runs The Basic Structure, a widely read blog that simplifies constitutional law for general audiences. He also collaborates with students across universities to establish forums on constitutional law. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, nominated in recognition of his work in the United Kingdom.
Mayuri is a Milon K Banerji Senior Resident Fellow at Charkha, Vidhi’s Constitutional Law Centre. She obtained her Doctorate in Law from Gujarat National Law University in 2026. She completed her LL.M. in Constitutional and Administrative Law from Gujarat National Law University in 2017, graduating with the R. B. Mehta Gold Medal, and holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Amity Law School, Lucknow (2016). Her work lies at the intersection of constitutional theory and practice, with a focus on electoral reform, federalism, and local governance. At Vidhi, she has been closely involved in research and writing initiatives aimed at strengthening constitutional understanding, including her work on the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the Anti-defection Law, Delimitation of Electoral Constituencies, and the Constitution Catalogues. She regularly engages with students across academic and professional forums and presents her research at national and international journals, seminars, and conferences. Prior to joining Vidhi, she served as an Assistant Professor of Law.
Lalit Panda is a Specialist (Rights and Regulation) at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, having originally joined in 2017 after a brief stint in the 21st Law Commission of India. He has produced research and advised on a wide range of subjects in public law, technology law, and regulation, with core interests in equality and discrimination, data protection, and regulatory design. He maintains a deep interest in understanding the unique roles of legal, economic, and political theory in policy choice, and has written on a number of issues in law and policy for media outlets and academic journals. He holds an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree in law from Gujarat National Law University and Harvard Law School, respectively.
