Women's Reservation Act Enforced from April 16; Voting on Three Bills April 17

April 17, 2026 - In a sudden late night move on Thursday (April 16), the Union Ministry of Law and Justice issued a gazette notification declaring April 16 as the date from which the 2023 Women's Reservation Act (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) will come into force.

The Nair Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed by Parliament in 2023 and later assented to by the President of India. However, at that point the law was not enforced and the President's approval came with a key pointer that the Act would take effect only from a date that the Centre would later announce.

Now, the Union Government’s sudden announcement of that date as April 16 has taken everyone by surprise leading to scepticism and heated debates by the Opposition as to why this sudden notification even while a debate to discuss the Bills, including the women reservation quota, is currently ongoing in Parliament. Congress has called it an “extraordinary situation” and  Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has been slammed with questions.

The reason for this has been attributed to “technicalities” by a government official who, however, clarified that the law can be implemented only after a delimitation exercise.

The Women's Reservation Act reserves 33% of all directly elected seats in Parliament and State Assemblies for women. Almost all political parties support women’s reservation in principle but they are not in agreement with the timing of the Bill because the implementation is linked to delimitation, to the expansion of Parliament and to the 2011 Census data.

Currently, a special three-day Parliament session (Apr 16–18, 2026) is underway in New Delhi and MPs are scheduled to vote at 4:00 pm today (April 17) on three major Bills - Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026.

As per the 2023 Act, women's quota law can only take effect after delimitation based on the first Census conducted after the law comes into force (expected 2026-27). Through the Amendment Bill, the government is seeking to tweak the law to give Parliament the flexibility to decide which Census data to use for this purpose.

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill seeks to amend Article 81 to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850.

Even though the government has assured MPs that no State will lose its share of seats following delimitation, the Opposition is not convinced and sceptical of the Centre’s motive behind such a move.

Senior Congress leader from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor has slammed the delimitation proposal calling it “political demonetisation” for the speed at which the government was pushing the Bill. Additionally, he described the Women’s Reservation Act as a gift wrapped in “barbed wire” because it was linked to other more complicated issues without which it could not move forward.

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