Reservation for Women

The legislatures, from 2023

Article 330A. Seats shall be reserved for women in the House of the People. As nearly as may be one third of the seats reserved under article 330(2) for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be reserved for women of those groups, and as nearly as may be one third, including those seats, of the total seats filled by direct election shall be reserved for women.

Article 332A makes the same provision for every State Legislative Assembly.

Article 334A(1). Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of Part XVI or in Part VIII, the provisions 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 the commencement of the One Hundred and Sixth Amendment have been published, and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of fifteen years from such commencement.

Article 334A(2). Subject to articles 239AA, 330A and 332A, the reserved seats shall continue till such date as Parliament may by law determine.

Article 334A(3). Rotation of the reserved seats shall take effect after each subsequent delimitation as Parliament may by law determine.

Article 334A(4) preserves the existing House or Assembly until its dissolution.

Commencement. The amendment's provisions were brought into force on 16 April 2026. So the articles are part of the Constitution; what has not happened is the census and the delimitation on which article 334A(1) conditions their operation.

The fifteen year clock. Read carefully: the reservation ceases fifteen years from the commencement of the amendment, not from the date it begins to operate. Every year of delay in the census and delimitation is a year taken off the period during which the reservation actually works.

Comparison

The British row is worth a line. Reserved seats are unknown there, but political parties may lawfully use all-women shortlists for selection, which is a party-level device the Constitution of India does not use and does not need, having reserved the seats themselves.

A worked example

A constituency is reserved for women in a Panchayat election, and at the next election it is not.

Rotation. Article 243D(3) permits allotment of reserved seats by rotation to different constituencies, so the reservation moves.

The objection. A member elected from a reserved seat has no incentive to build a constituency base she cannot use next time, which is the standing criticism of rotation.

In the legislatures. Article 334A(3) leaves rotation for Parliament to determine after each subsequent delimitation, so the same question is postponed rather than answered.

The cases

Facts. Air India v. Nergesh Meerza, (1981) 4 SCC 335, concerned service regulations under which an air hostess retired at thirty five, or on marriage within four years of service, or on first pregnancy, whichever occurred earlier.

Held, by the Supreme Court. Termination on first pregnancy was manifestly unreasonable and arbitrary and violated article 14; the extension of retirement age at the discretion of the Managing Director without guidelines was excessive delegation; but the difference in retirement age between air hostesses and the male cabin crew was upheld because they formed separate cadres.

Why it matters here. It marks the limit of article 15(3): a provision resting on a stereotype about women is not saved by being described as special provision for them.

Facts. Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39, challenged section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which punished only the man and treated the woman as incapable of being an abettor.

Held, by five judges. The section violated articles 14, 15 and 21; it treated a woman as her husband's property, denied her autonomy and dignity, and was manifestly arbitrary. A provision purportedly protecting women which in truth denied them agency could not be sustained under article 15(3).

Why it matters here. It shows the same limit stated in modern terms: article 15(3) permits provision for women, not provision that subordinates them.

Distinctions

What beginners get wrong

"The One Hundred and Sixth Amendment is not in force." Articles 330A, 332A and 334A took effect on 16 April 2026; the reservation's operation is deferred by article 334A(1).

"One third is a maximum." In articles 243D and 243T the words are "not less than", so it is a floor, and several States legislate for half.

"The fifteen years run from the first reserved election." They run from the commencement of the amendment.

"Article 15(3) needs a finding of backwardness." It does not; that is article 15(4).

Limits and criticism

Rotation weakens the representative, because a member cannot cultivate a constituency she will not be able to contest.

Reserving the seat is not the same as sharing power, and the criticism that a reserved seat may be held by a proxy for a male relative has been made since 1993.

No sub-quota was included, and the demand for a quota within the quota for backward class women was pressed and not accepted, which is one of the reasons the measure took nearly three decades to pass.

And the deferral is the sharpest criticism of all: a right that begins after a census and a delimitation, and ends fifteen years after the amendment rather than fifteen years after it starts, is a right whose useful life shrinks with every year of administrative delay.

Quick revision

1. Article 15(3): special provision for women and children, no backwardness finding required.
2. Articles 243D and 243T: not less than one third of directly elected seats for women, since 1993 and 1994, plus one third within the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe seats and reservation of Chairperson offices.
3. Articles 330A and 332A: as nearly as may be one third for women in the House of the People and every State Assembly.
4. One third within the seats reserved under articles 330(2) and 332(3) for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women.
5. Article 334A(1): operative after delimitation following the first census since commencement; fifteen years from commencement.
6. Commencement of the One Hundred and Sixth Amendment provisions: 16 April 2026.
7. Nergesh Meerza and Joseph Shine mark the limits of article 15(3).

Test yourself

1. Set out the local government provisions. Article 243D reserves seats in every Panchayat for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to population, allotted by rotation; requires not less than one third of those reserved seats to be reserved for women of those groups; requires not less than one third of the total seats to be filled by direct election, including the seats for women of those groups, to be reserved for women, allotted by rotation; and requires the offices of Chairpersons to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women as the State legislature provides. Article 243T makes corresponding provision for Municipalities. The figures are floors, so a State may legislate for more.

2. State the present position on legislative seats accurately. Articles 330A and 332A, inserted by the One Hundred and Sixth Amendment 2023 and brought into force on 16 April 2026, reserve as nearly as may be one third of the seats filled by direct election in the House of the People and in every State Legislative Assembly for women, including as nearly as may be one third of the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Article 334A(1) provides that the reservation shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation undertaken for the purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken since the amendment's commencement have been published, and that it shall cease on the expiration of fifteen years from that commencement.

3. Why is the fifteen year clause criticised? Because the period runs from the commencement of the amendment and not from the date the reservation begins to operate. Since article 334A(1) conditions operation on a census and a subsequent delimitation, every year taken by those exercises is subtracted from the fifteen years during which the reservation actually applies. A right whose sunset is fixed independently of its sunrise loses its content through administrative delay rather than through any legislative decision to end it.

4. What are the limits of article 15(3)? That it permits provision for women, not provision resting on a stereotype about them. Air India v. Nergesh Meerza, (1981) 4 SCC 335, struck down the termination of an air hostess's service on first pregnancy as manifestly unreasonable and arbitrary, while upholding a different retirement age between separate cadres. Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39, struck down section 497 of the Penal Code, which punished only the man and treated the woman as incapable of consent, holding that a provision presented as protective which in truth denied a woman agency violated articles 14, 15 and 21.