The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 is a legislative proposal, a type of Constitution Amendment Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2026, by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal. Its primary purpose is to fast-track the implementation of the one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, which was originally provided by the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam).
The Bill's origin lies in the need to bypass the delay in women's reservation, which the 2023 Act had tied to the delimitation exercise following the first census after its commencement. Since the next census was expected to take considerable time, the 131st Amendment Bill seeks to operationalise the reservation sooner.
The Bill works by proposing key amendments to the Constitution: it amends Article 81 to increase the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850 members, with up to 815 from States and 35 from Union Territories. It also amends Article 82 to remove the requirement that delimitation must occur only after the first census following 2026, instead allowing Parliament to determine by law when to carry out delimitation and which census to use. This change allows for the immediate use of the 2011 census figures for the upcoming delimitation. The Bill also amends Article 334A to allow the one-third reservation for women to take effect immediately after this expedited delimitation.
The Bill is closely connected to the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, which it seeks to implement sooner, and is part of a legislative package that includes the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026. The Bill changes the existing constitutional provision that had frozen the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha based on the 1971 census until the first census after 2026. The core change is the removal of this freeze and the increase in the Lok Sabha's size, while the principle of women's reservation, established by the 106th Amendment, remains the same.