The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment) Bill, 2026 was a proposed Constitution Amendment Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2026, by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal. It was a legislative instrument under Article 368 intended to overhaul parliamentary representation and expedite women's reservation. The Bill was created because the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) had linked the one-third reservation for women to a delimitation exercise based on the first census after its commencement, which would have delayed implementation until the 2030s.
The Bill's key provisions sought to amend several articles. It proposed to amend Article 334A to allow the women's reservation to take effect immediately after a new delimitation, bypassing the original delay. It also sought to amend 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. Furthermore, the Bill aimed to remove the constitutional freeze on seat readjustment by amending Article 82 and Article 170, which had been in place since 1976 and extended until the first census after 2026. This would have allowed a new delimitation based on a census determined by Parliament, likely the 2011 Census, to be conducted immediately. The Bill was connected to the Delimitation Bill, 2026, which was introduced concurrently. However, the Bill failed in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026, as it did not secure the mandatory two-thirds special majority required for a constitutional amendment. Consequently, the original implementation timeline for the 106th Amendment remained unchanged.