Civil society slams secrecy over women’s reservation and delimitation Bills

By A Representative

A group of prominent academics, activists, and retired civil servants have issued a strong statement criticizing the government’s opaque and non-consultative approach in introducing three major bills on women’s reservation and delimitation during the upcoming special extension of the Budget Session of Parliament scheduled for April 16–18, 2026.

According to media reports, the cabinet has cleared an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Act (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), a Delimitation Bill, and a separate bill extending the quota to Union Territories. These measures are said to pave the way for 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies from 2029, alongside a proposed 50% increase in seats, raising the Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 to 816 and total assembly seats from 4,123 to 6,186.

The signatories argue that such sweeping constitutional and legislative changes will fundamentally reshape India’s electoral democracy, yet citizens have been kept in the dark about the contents, implications, and rationale of the bills.

They note that information is reaching the public only through media reports based on unnamed “sources,” which they describe as a violation of the people’s right to information and of the Union Government’s Pre-legislative Consultation Policy adopted in 2014. That policy requires draft legislations to be placed in the public domain for at least 30 days, inviting comments, publishing feedback summaries, and ensuring wide publicity before Cabinet approval.

The statement demands that the government immediately make the draft bills public, disseminate them widely in multiple languages, and subject them to robust public consultation in line with the policy. While reiterating their support for women’s reservation in legislatures, the endorsers condemn the secretive manner in which the bills are being advanced.

They call it a grave disservice to democracy to introduce legislation for women’s empowerment while excluding women and the wider public from the conversation. They stress that reforms of such historic magnitude require transparent debate, scrutiny, and inclusion of diverse voices, rather than being rushed through amid ongoing state elections as a political maneuver.

The statement has been endorsed by 18 individuals, including transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj, Prof. Ganesh Devy, retired IAS officer Aditi Mehta, Professor Emerita Zoya Hasan, Amitabha Pande of the Constitutional Conduct Group, Prof. Santosh Mehrotra, former civil servant Ashish Joshi, Kamal Kant Jaswal, former UN official Kamal Malhotra, activist Teesta Setalvad, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, retired IAS officer V. Ramani, Dr. Harshavardhan Hegde, retired IFS officer Ashok Sharma, Prof. Balveer Arora, policy analyst Yamini Aiyar, retired academic Niraja G. Jayal, and transparency activist Amrita Johri.

Together, they emphasize that women’s reservation must be enacted through democratic processes that embody openness and accountability, not secrecy.

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