Tenth Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Act 1990
Its ten-year reservation of 30 seats for women ran from the first meeting of the Fifth Parliament in 1991 and has expired. Clause (3) of Article 65 has since been replaced, most recently by the Seventeenth Amendment of 2018.
Women's reserved seats were always time-limited. The reservation then in force expired in late 1987, so the Parliament elected in 1988 had only the 300 directly elected seats. No woman sat in a reserved seat in the Fourth Parliament.
The Fourth Parliament passed the Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Bill in June 1990, and it became Act XXXVIII of 1990. Section 2 substituted a new clause (3) in Article 65, the provision that sets out how Parliament is composed.
The new clause reserved 30 seats exclusively for women, to be elected according to law by the 300 directly elected members. Women could still contest any of the 300 general seats, because the proviso protecting that right was kept.
The reservation ran until the dissolution of Parliament after ten years from the first meeting of the next Parliament. That was the Fifth Parliament, elected in February 1991, so the clock started in 1991 and the seats were filled in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Parliaments.
The reservation expired with the Seventh Parliament in 2001. The Fourteenth Amendment of 2004 provided 45 reserved seats, the Fifteenth raised them to 50 in 2011, and the Seventeenth extended them for 25 years in 2018.
In plain English
Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Act 1990
The Tenth Amendment substituted clause (3) of Article 65 to reserve 30 seats in Parliament exclusively for women. The reservation was to last until the dissolution of Parliament after ten years from the first meeting of the next Parliament, and the women members were to be elected by the 300 directly elected members. The earlier reservation of seats for women had lapsed in 1987, so the amendment restored it for a further period.
It matters as one step in the series of time-limited reservations for women in Parliament, later extended and enlarged by the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth Amendments.
Background
The 1972 Constitution reserved 15 seats for women for ten years, elected by the members of Parliament. A 1978 proclamation order raised the number to 30 and extended the period to 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution, as reported, so the reservation lapsed in late 1987. The Fourth Parliament, elected in March 1988, therefore had no reserved seats for women.
In June 1990, months before the political crisis that ended President Ershad's government, the Fourth Parliament passed the Tenth Amendment to bring back 30 reserved seats for the following ten years.
What changed
What the Tenth Amendment changed, article by article
Article 65
Tenth Amendment(3) Until the dissolution of Parliament occurring next after the expiration of the period of ten years beginning from the date of the first meeting of the Parliament next after the Parliament in existence at the time of commencement of the [Tenth Amendment] Act, there shall be reserved thirty seats exclusively for women members ...
Section 2, substituting clause (3). The proviso that women may also be elected to general seats was kept. Clause (3) now reads as substituted by the Seventeenth Amendment of 2018.
What happened next
What happened to the Tenth Amendment next
The Tenth Amendment was not challenged in court. Its reservation took effect from the Fifth Parliament, which first met in 1991, and ran through the Sixth and Seventh Parliaments before lapsing in 2001, so the Eighth Parliament initially had no reserved seats. The Fourteenth Amendment of 2004 substituted clause (3) to provide 45 reserved seats elected on the basis of proportional representation. The Fifteenth Amendment of 2011 raised the number to 50, and the Seventeenth Amendment of 2018 extended the 50 seats for 25 years from the next Parliament.
The present clause (3) is the Seventeenth Amendment's text.
Timeline
- Earlier reservation of 30 seats for women lapses, as reported
- Tenth Amendment enacted, as reported
- Fifth Parliament meets and the ten-year period begins
- Reservation lapses on the dissolution of the Seventh Parliament
- Fourteenth Amendment substitutes clause (3) with 45 reserved seats
Questions
Tenth Amendment: frequently asked questions
What did the Tenth Amendment do?
It substituted clause (3) of Article 65 to reserve 30 seats in Parliament exclusively for women for about ten years, counted from the first meeting of the next Parliament. The women members were to be elected by the 300 directly elected members, not by voters.
Why was it needed?
The earlier reservation of 30 seats, set by a 1978 proclamation to last 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution, expired in late 1987, as reported. Without an amendment, Parliament would have had no seats reserved for women.
Is the Tenth Amendment still in force?
Its effect has passed. The ten-year reservation ended in 2001, and clause (3) of Article 65 has since been replaced by later amendments. The present text, from the Seventeenth Amendment of 2018, reserves 50 seats for women.
Sources
- Archived English text of the Constitution with pre-2004 footnotes, Part V (RESDAL copy)
- Laws of Bangladesh (bdlaws): Constitution, Article 65 (present clause (3))
- Banglapedia: Constitutional Amendments
- The Daily Star Law and Our Rights (3 April 2004): summary of constitutional amendments
This guide explains the Constitution for general understanding. It is not legal advice. Constitutional reform proposals under discussion in 2026 are described as proposals until enacted.
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