A group of academics, activists and former bureaucrats on Monday expressed concern about the “complete lack of transparency” regarding the draft legislations on women’s reservation and delimitation that are proposed to be taken up during a special sitting of Parliament.

In a statement, the group of 262 citizens said that it is “shocking that the citizens of the country have been kept completely in the dark about the contents of the bills, their implications and the rationale for bringing these constitutional and legislative amendments”, given its far-reaching ramifications.

On April 2, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Budget Session of Parliament will be reconvened on April 16 for three days to introduce “important bills”.

At the time, reports indicated that the session, which was to end on April 2, had been extended to take up amendments to the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act. The Union government did not explain why the session was being extended.

The 2023 Act reserves 33% of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women. However, the reservations will be effective only after a population census is conducted, followed by a delimitation exercise.

Delimitation is the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies. Article 82 of the Constitution states that after every census is...

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