The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was a proposed constitutional amendment bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2026, by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, but it was negatived (rejected) on April 17, 2026. The bill's primary purpose was to reform the process of delimitation and accelerate the implementation of women's reservation in legislatures.
The bill originated from the need to address the distortion of the "one person, one vote" principle due to population changes since the 1971 Census and to operationalize the 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), which provided for one-third reservation for women. The 106th Amendment's implementation was linked to a delimitation exercise following the first census after 2026, which would have delayed it until around 2034. The 131st Amendment Bill sought to advance this implementation to 2029.
The bill proposed several key changes to the mechanism of representation: it sought to remove the freeze on seat readjustment, which was in place until the first census after 2026 under Article 170. It also proposed to increase the maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, with up to 815 members from states. Crucially, it aimed to allow Parliament to determine which census would be used for delimitation, with the companion Delimitation Bill, 2026 implying the use of the 2011 Census. This was a significant change, as the existing framework for seat allocation in the Lok Sabha was based on the 1971 Census. The bill was connected to the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which were subsequently withdrawn after the constitutional amendment failed. The bill failed to pass in the Lok Sabha as it secured 298 votes, falling short of the 352 votes required for a special majority under Article 368.