Which of the following statements as per the Constitution of India is/are correct? 1. Provision for the reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha has been made vide 106th Amendment of the Constitution. 2. There are provisions for the reservation of seats for women in the Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils of the States. 3. There are provisions for the reservation of seats for women in Panchayats. Select the answer using the code given below:

Correct — D, 3 only. The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, inserted Article 330A to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha for women and Article 332A to do the same in every State Legislative Assembly, and amended Article 239AA so that the Delhi Assembly is covered too. It says nothing whatever about the Rajya Sabha, so statement 1 overreaches by naming a House the amendment does not touch. Statement 2 fails for the parallel reason at the State level: the Assemblies are covered by Article 332A, the Legislative Councils are not, and no other provision reserves seats for women in a Council. Statement 3 is the one that holds, and it is much older than the other two. Article 243D(3), inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment in 1992, requires that not less than one-third of the seats filled by direct election in every Panchayat be reserved for women, allotted by rotation to different constituencies; Article 243D(4) does the same for the offices of chairperson, and Article 243T carries the identical scheme into the Municipalities. There is a pattern behind the split. A reservation of this kind works by earmarking territorial constituencies, so it fits bodies filled by direct election from constituencies and does not fit the Rajya Sabha or the Councils, which are indirectly elected or nominated. That is why the amendment stops where it does.

• (a)1 and 2 — Takes the two statements that both fail. The 106th Amendment does not reach the Rajya Sabha, and nothing in the Constitution reserves seats for women in a State Legislative Council.
• (b)2 and 3 — Keeps the sound statement 3 but adds the Legislative Councils, which are outside the women's reservation scheme altogether.
• (c)1 only — The exact inverse of the right answer. It certifies the statement that fails on the Rajya Sabha and discards the one that has been in force in the Panchayats since 1992.

Reservation of seats for women exists in Indian constitutional law at two levels and arrived thirty-one years apart. In local government it dates from the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments of 1992, which put not less than one-third of directly elected Panchayat and Municipality seats, and of chairperson posts, in women's hands; many States have since raised their own floor to one-half by State law. At the level of Parliament and the State Assemblies it dates from the 106th Amendment of 2023, which reserves one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha, in the State Legislative Assemblies and in the Delhi Assembly.

Two things decide this item. The first is scope — a statements question about a named amendment is usually testing whether you know where the amendment stops, and here both statement 1 and statement 2 are true up to a point and then add a body that is not covered. The second is timing. Statement 3 does not depend on 2023 at all; it has been law since 1992, which is why an examiner can pair it with two recent claims and expect candidates to over-think it. The other thing worth knowing about the 106th Amendment is that it is not yet operative: the reservation takes effect only after the first census taken after its commencement and the delimitation exercise that follows, so at the time of this exam in November 2025 no Lok Sabha or Assembly seat had actually been reserved under it. The delayed census has since moved: house-listing ran through 2026, with population enumeration scheduled for February 2027.

• The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 inserted Article 330A (Lok Sabha) and Article 332A (State Legislative Assemblies) and amended Article 239AA for the Delhi Assembly.
• It makes no provision for the Rajya Sabha or for the State Legislative Councils.
• Article 243D(3), from the Seventy-third Amendment of 1992, reserves not less than one-third of the directly elected seats in every Panchayat for women, allotted by rotation; Article 243D(4) covers the chairperson posts.
• Article 243T carries the same one-third reservation into the Municipalities under the Seventy-fourth Amendment.
• The 106th Amendment's reservation operates only after the first census following its commencement and the consequent delimitation, so no seat had been reserved under it at the date of this paper.

• Assuming a reservation in the Lok Sabha implies one in the Rajya Sabha; the 106th Amendment is confined to directly elected houses.
• Pairing the State Legislative Assemblies with the Legislative Councils as though they were covered by the same provision.
• Dating the Panchayat reservation to 2023. It has been in Article 243D since 1992.

As a statements item on the reach of the 106th Amendment, as a straight article-identification question on Panchayat reservation, or as a question on when the 106th Amendment's reservation begins to operate.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Reservation of seats for women in Panchayats is provided for under which one of the following articles of the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Article 243B
  • (b)Article 243C
  • (c)Article 243D
  • (d)Article 243G

  Answer(c) Article 243D — clause (3) reserves not less than one-third of the directly elected seats for women, and clause (4) the chairperson posts.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The reservation of seats for women made by the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 takes effect after which one of the following?

  • (a)Immediately on the President's assent
  • (b)The first census taken after the commencement of the Act and the delimitation that follows
  • (c)A resolution of both Houses of Parliament
  • (d)Ratification by half the State Legislatures

  Answer(b) The first census taken after the commencement of the Act and the delimitation that follows — which is why no seat had been reserved under it when this paper was set.