The 106th Amendment, and Why It Has Not Started

In one line

The largest constitutional measure ever enacted for women reserves a third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies, and none of it is in force, because the Constitution makes it wait for a delimitation that has not happened.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 inserted article 330A, reserving for women seats in the House of the People, article 332A, reserving for women seats in the Legislative Assembly of every State, a corresponding provision for the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and article 334A, which governs commencement. Article 334A(1) provides that notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of Part XVI or Part VIII, the provisions relating to the reservation of seats for women shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after the commencement of the Amendment Act have been published, and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of fifteen years from such commencement.

What the amendment provides

Article 330A. Seats shall be reserved for women in the House of the People, including seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and as nearly as may be one-third of the total number of seats.

Article 332A. The same for the Legislative Assembly of every State: seats reserved for women, including within the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and as nearly as may be one-third of the total.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi is dealt with by an amendment to article 239AA, so the reservation reaches its Assembly too.

The reservation is horizontal within the reserved seats. The words "including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes" mean that the one-third operates inside those categories, as it does in local government under [Women in Local Government]. There is no separate quota for women of the other backward classes, and that omission was the principal political objection to the Bill.

Article 334A, which is the whole difficulty

The commencement provision is short and it should be read rather than summarised. Its first clause provides:

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provision of this Part or Part VIII, the provisions of the Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People, the Legislative Assembly of a State and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after commencement of the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 have been published and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of fifteen years from such commencement.