Constitutional Hurdles to Expand Women's Quota
Context:
The government has proposed increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats by 50% (to 816 seats) to implement the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women’s Reservation Act, 2023) without reducing the current number of seats available to men.
However, this proposal faces significant legal and constitutional hurdles.
Key Constitutional Challenges:
Article 81 and the Ceiling Limit:
Article 81(1)(a) currently limits the strength of the Lok Sabha to 550 members.
To accommodate 816 seats, a constitutional amendment is required to raise this ceiling.
The "One Person, One Vote, One Value" Principle:
Article 81(2)(a) mandates that the ratio between the number of seats allotted to a state and its population must be, so far as practicable, the same for all states.
Expanding seats based on the 2011 Census while maintaining existing proportions may violate the Right to Equality (Article 14) and the Basic Structure of the Constitution.
The Delimitation Linkage:
The 2023 Act links the commencement of reservation to the first delimitation exercise conducted after the relevant Census is published.
The government is considering amending the Act to decouple reservation from the Delimitation Commission to allow it to come into force automatically.
The North-South Divide:
Population vs. Representation:
Southern states have historically performed better in population control.
Apportioning seats based on newer Census data (like 2011 or 2021) would drastically increase the representation of northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar while reducing the relative political weight of the south.
Compensatory Principle:
Legal experts suggest that Parliament may need to devise a "compensatory principle" or special safeguards to address the concerns of southern states, as the current Indian system primarily offers protections based on "backwardness" rather than demographic performance.