The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 is a proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to overhaul the process of delimitation and significantly increase the strength of the Lok Sabha. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2026, the Bill's primary objective is to facilitate the immediate implementation of the one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, which was mandated by the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (passed in 2023).
The Bill originates from the need to end the freeze on seat allocation that was put in place by the 84th Amendment Act (2001), which had frozen the number of Lok Sabha seats until the first census after 2026. This freeze was originally implemented to avoid penalizing states that successfully controlled their population growth. The Bill addresses the problem of unequal representation, as the current seat allocation is largely based on the 1971 Census.
The key provisions of the Bill include amending Article 81 to increase the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha from the existing 550 members to 850 members (815 from states and 35 from Union Territories). It also amends Article 82 to authorize Parliament to determine by law which census will be used for the next delimitation exercise, effectively removing the requirement to wait for the first census after 2026. This change is intended to allow the next delimitation to be based on the latest published census data, which is interpreted to be the 2011 Census. The Bill connects directly to the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which were introduced concurrently to establish a Delimitation Commission and apply similar provisions to Union Territories. The amendment also enables the implementation of the 33% women's reservation (via Article 334A) immediately after the delimitation exercise is completed.