Bill proposes to end mandatory delimitation after every Census, Pg3

Key Highlights:

• The government is proposing three Bills in the extended Budget session of Parliament to address the delimitation of constituencies.
• The Bills aim to facilitate the early implementation of women's reservation in Parliament and state Assemblies.
• The proposed Bills seek to amend Article 82 of the Constitution, potentially ending mandatory delimitation after every Census.
• The Bills propose capping the number of elected members at 815, a 50% increase from the existing 543 in the Lok Sabha.

Detailed Insights:

• The proposed amendment to Article 82 renames it to "Readjustment of constituencies," removing the explicit requirement for seat allocation and constituency division after each Census.
• The amendment to Article 81 redefines "population" for seat allocation, allowing Parliament to determine which Census figures will be used, shifting discretion to the political executive.
• The Bills stipulate that readjustment will be carried out by a Delimitation Commission based on the census specified, with the timing and dataset determined by a simple majority in Parliament.
• The proposed changes mark a departure from past practices, where decisions to defer delimitation required constitutional amendments passed with a two-thirds majority.
• While the Bills retain population as the basis for redrawing constituencies, they do not specify how Lok Sabha seats will be distributed across states while preserving existing regional balances.
• The absence of a clear allocation formula creates a gap between the political assurance of maintaining current proportions and the legal framework proposed.
• Reconciling the constitutional principle of equal representation with the commitment to maintain the existing share of seats for each state will likely be a key point of debate in Parliament.

How UPSC asks Questions on this:

UPSC Prelims 2024

Key Concepts Involved:

• Delimitation: The process of redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies to represent population changes.
• Census: A periodic count of a country's population, providing demographic data used for various purposes, including delimitation.
• Article 82: A section of the Indian Constitution that deals with the readjustment of seats in the Lok Sabha after each census.