Another bill put on hold as Centre seeks regional parties’ backing for women’s quota, delimitation
Introduction of a pending bill on higher education reform has been deferred, according to reports, as legislative priorities shift ahead of the Parliament's Monsoon Session.
The deferral coincides with continuing efforts to secure the backing of regional political parties for previously stalled constitutional amendment legislation on Lok Sabha delimitation and women's reservation.
Earlier in 2026, a package of bills — a Constitution amendment bill enabling delimitation and expansion of the Lok Sabha, along with an accompanying Delimitation Bill — failed to clear the Lok Sabha for want of the required two-thirds special majority.
Reports indicate continued engagement with regional parties to build the numbers needed before any renewed attempt to pass the delimitation-linked legislation in the current session.
Article 368 — Special Majority and State Ratification for Constitutional Amendments
Not all constitutional amendments follow the same procedure. Article 368 prescribes three distinct routes depending on which part of the Constitution is being amended, and legislation touching the "representation of States in Parliament" attracts the most stringent route.
Key Details
- A "special majority" under Article 368 requires a majority of the total membership of each House AND a two-thirds majority of members present and voting in that House.
- For a specific list of provisions — including elections to the offices of President and Vice-President, executive power of the Union and States, and crucially, the representation of States in Parliament — the amendment additionally requires ratification by the legislatures of at least one-half of the States before presidential assent.
- A bill altering the total number of Lok Sabha seats and their distribution among States falls within this "representation of States" category, making it procedurally heavier than an ordinary constitutional amendment.
The earlier defeat of the delimitation-linked constitutional amendment bill in the Lok Sabha reflects the difficulty of clearing this special-majority threshold, which is why the government is reported to be working to build broader political support before reintroducing it.
Articles 82 and 170 — Delimitation Machinery and the Post-2001 Freeze
Delimitation is the constitutionally mandated exercise of redrawing Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies after each census, but its execution for total seat numbers has been frozen for over two decades.
Key Details
- Article 82 requires Parliament to enact a Delimitation Act after every census to readjust Lok Sabha seat allocation among States and re-divide constituencies within States; Article 170(3) provides the parallel mechanism for State Assemblies.
- The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 first froze each State's total seat allocation at 1971 Census levels, to avoid penalising States that had controlled population growth relative to others.
- The 84th Amendment Act, 2001 extended this freeze on total State-wise seat numbers until the first census taken after 2026, while still permitting intra-State constituency boundary readjustment using 2001 Census data.
Any renewed delimitation bill must operate within, or seek to modify, this freeze — a politically sensitive question because States with faster population growth would otherwise gain proportionally more seats than others.
106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023 — Women's Reservation Tied to Delimitation
The women's reservation law is already enacted but not yet operative, because its own text makes implementation conditional on a delimitation exercise that has not yet occurred.
Key Details
- The 106th Amendment Act, 2023 inserted Articles 330A and 332A, reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, including within SC/ST reserved seats.
- Under Article 334A, the reservation takes effect only after seats are re-allocated through the delimitation exercise carried out on the basis of the first census conducted after the Act's commencement.
- The Act's commencement was notified on 16 April 2026, but since neither the triggering census nor the consequent delimitation has taken place, the seat reservation itself remains inoperative.
This is why delimitation-linked legislation, not the women's reservation law itself, is the actual legislative bottleneck the government is trying to resolve — and why building support for it is being prioritised over other pending bills.
- Constitutional amendments affecting "representation of States in Parliament" require: special majority in each House of Parliament + ratification by legislatures of at least half the States (proviso to Article 368(2)).
- Delimitation freeze: imposed by the 42nd Amendment (1976) using the 1971 Census; extended by the 84th Amendment (2001) until the first census after 2026.
- 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023 (women's reservation): commencement notified 16 April 2026; substantive reservation still inoperative pending post-2026-census delimitation under Article 334A.
- The delimitation-linked constitutional amendment bill introduced earlier in 2026 failed to secure the required two-thirds special majority in the Lok Sabha.