Kashmir Impulse Desk

New Delhi, April 16 

India’s government on Thursday introduced a bill in parliament to amend laws governing Union Territories, including Jammu and Kashmir, to align provisions on women’s reservation and seat allocation with a revised constitutional framework.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah tabled the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha, as part of a package of three bills linked to women’s reservation and electoral delimitation.

The proposed legislation seeks to amend key laws, including the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, to ensure consistency with constitutional provisions introduced under the 2023 amendment that mandates reservation of seats for women in legislatures.

The bill provides that the total number of seats in legislative assemblies of Union Territories, and their territorial composition, will be determined by a delimitation commission based on a census to be specified by parliament.

It also aligns the implementation of a 33 percent reservation for women with Article 334A of the Constitution, under which such quotas will take effect only after a delimitation exercise.

For Jammu and Kashmir, the amendments propose increasing the minimum strength of the legislative assembly to 114 seats, including 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-administered Kashmir that will remain vacant, with at least 90 seats to be filled through direct elections.

The number of nominated members would rise to seven from five, including provisions for three women nominees.

The bill further provides that women’s reservation in the assembly would be implemented after constituency boundaries are redrawn and would remain in force for 15 years, with seats rotated periodically.

The proposed changes are intended to harmonise existing laws with the revised constitutional framework governing population, delimitation and representation, the government said.