The Women's Reservation Act 2023 is formally known as The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, or the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. It is a Constitutional Amendment Act passed in September 2023 to address the long-standing problem of low female representation in legislative bodies. The legislative journey began with the first attempt to introduce a similar bill in 1996, which failed multiple times over the next two decades.
The Act mandates the reservation of, as nearly as may be, one-third (33%) of the total seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the State Legislative Assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. This reservation also applies to the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) within these bodies.
The mechanism for this reservation is established by inserting new constitutional provisions: Article 330A for the Lok Sabha, Article 332A for State Legislative Assemblies, and an amendment to Article 239AA for Delhi. Crucially, the implementation of the reservation is delayed, as it will only come into effect after the first delimitation exercise following the publication of the census conducted after the Act's commencement. The reservation is set to remain in force for a period of 15 years from its commencement, with a provision for extension by a law made by Parliament. The reserved seats will be allotted by rotation to different constituencies after each delimitation.
This Act connects directly to the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts (1992), which previously mandated a one-third reservation for women in Panchayats and Municipalities (local bodies). The new law extends this principle of reservation to the Union and State legislatures. The Act itself is the recent change, finally succeeding where previous bills, such as the one introduced in 1996, had lapsed.