Polity Handout-2 (Class-6) by Mr.

Abhey Kumar
Delimitation of Constituencies for Elections in India
‘Democracy’ refers to the ‘rule or government by the people’. It follows that the
government is elected by a majority with the broad principle of ‘one voter – one vote – one
value’. Accordingly, Article 81(2) of the Constitution of India requires that the seats
allocated to each State in the Lok Sabha shall be in proportion to their populations, as far as
possible. Alongside, the territorial constituencies within the States shall be so designed so
that the population of each constituency is same throughout the State, as far as practicable.
Similar principles apply to the Legislative Assemblies of the States, under Article 170 of the
Constitution.
‘Delimitation’ refers to the periodic exercise of fixing the number of seats and re-
drawing the boundaries of constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and the
Legislative Assemblies to maintain equitable distribution of population across the
constituencies. This, in turn, ensures political equality. However, it is not only a political
necessity, but also a question of practical and developmental concerns. For instance,
election laws provide for uniform campaign period and uniform limits of expenditure for
the candidates, irrespective of the size of the constituency (in 2024: Rs. 95 Lakh for Lok
Sabha constituencies and Rs. 40 Lakh for Assembly seats, with a reduced limit for some
smaller States and UTs as Rs 75 Lakh and Rs. 28 Lakh, respectively). Further, under the
MPLAD scheme, MPs are allotted Rs. 5 Crore per annum to recommend developmental
works in their constituencies.
Further, delimitation also includes determining the seats to be reserved for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies.
After The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, the delimitation
after the next Census shall also undertake the exercise of reserving, as nearly as may be,
one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha, Legislative Assemblies of States and the Legislative
Assembly of the NCT of Delhi.
Articles 82 and 170 of the Constitution of India direct the Parliament of India to
provide, by law, for undertaking this re-adjustment exercise after the completion of each
Census. For this, a ‘Delimitation Commission’ is set up under an Act of Parliament – enacted
four times so far – in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. The result of these delimitation exercises
is summarised in the Table below:
S. No. Delimitation Census Lok Sabha Average Population per
Act Seats Constituency
1 1952 1951 494 7.3 Lakh
2 1963 1961 522 8.4 Lakh
3 1973 1971 543 10.1 Lakh
4 2002 2001 543 18.9 Lakh*
*Estimated. Allocation of seats in the 2002 delimitation is not based on this ratio. The
allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to the States was kept the same as it was after the
earlier delimitation based on 1971 Census.

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 By the mid of the decade of 1970s, it was realised that any further delimitation will
result in the southern States, which had been effectively implementing population control
measures, losing seats in the Lok Sabha which will be apportioned by a few northern States
that have underwent exponential population growth. Hence, The Constitution (Forty-
second Amendment) Act, 1976 provided that it shall not be necessary to undertake any
further delimitation until the Census conducted after the year 2000, thereby freezing the:
a) strength of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of the States
b) representation of the States in the Lok Sabha
c) re-adjustment of the constituencies of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of the
States
Later, The Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act, 2001 further provided for the
delimitation of constituencies (re-adjustment of their boundaries) as per the 1991 Census,
and extended the freezing of the strength of Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies, and
the representation of States in the Lok Sabha until the first Census after the year 2026.
Accordingly, Parliament enacted the Delimitation Act, 2002 and appointed a 3-member
Delimitation Commission (a retired Judge of Supreme Court as Chairperson, an Election
Commissioner nominated by the Chief Election Commissioner and the State Election
Commissioner of the concerned State). In 2003, as the latest figures became available from
the Census of 2001, Parliament enacted The Constitution (Eighty-seventh Amendment) Act,
2003 permitting delimitation to be undertaken on the basis of 2001 Census (only the re-
adjustment of constituencies). The President notified the Delimitation Order in 2006 and
accordingly, the 2009 Lok Sabha Election was held with the new delimitation.
Most recently, the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act, 2019 made provisions for
delimiting the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the UT of J&K on the basis of
2011 Census and in accordance with the provisions of The Delimitation Act, 2002. The
Delimitation Order was accordingly notified in 2022.
To summarise, the current status of delimitation (used, for example, for the 2024 Lok
Sabha elections) is as follows:
1. The strength of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, and the representation of
States in the Lok Sabha is as per the 1971 Census
2. The re-adjustment of territorial constituencies of Lok Sabha and Legislative
Assemblies is as per 2001 Census (except for Jammu & Kashmir, where it is based on
2011 Census)
However, the skewed population growth rate across different States has continued now
over several decades. The population explosion that has happened in our country during
the last five decades has been uneven with some States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh and Rajasthan having a greater increase than States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This situation has caused unequal representation of the
people of different States in the Lok Sabha. Moreover, the migration to the urban centres
has resulted in a larger population in the urban constituencies and a lower population in

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 the rural constituencies. Thus, the urban constituencies are under-represented and the
rural ones are over-represented.
Once the freeze on the number and State-wise distribution of seats ends in 2026, the
Union Government will be required to constitute a Delimitation Commission. In the normal
course of events, the delimitation process would have happened based on the Census of
2031. However, with the 2021 Census being postponed and the latest announcement of the
Government to conduct the 16th Census of India with the reference date of 1st March, 2027
(for most of the country), the debate has been initiated regarding the next delimitation
exercise. The southern States of India argue that a delimitation exercise purely on the basis
of population will reduce their political representation in the Parliament. In addition,
smaller States like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as the northeastern
States are also likely to be at a disadvantage.
Options for Way Forward
It is generally agreed that the number of seats in the Legislative Assemblies shall increase
in proportion to the populations of the respective States. The disagreement is largely with
respect to the principles for the number of seats assigned for each State in the Lok Sabha.
For that, broadly, three options are being discussed in public domain as follows (first is
named Option Zero since it involves not changing anything from what exists now for the
Lok Sabha):
1) Option 0 – Maintain status quo, i.e. extend the present freeze on delimitation, until
25-30 more years and ensure proper implementation of population stabilisation
measures in the States that have underwent high growth over last decades. This,
perhaps, is likely to be least disruptive in the centre-state relations of our country.
However, if appropriate efforts are not made by the States to stabilise their
populations, it will only be seen in the hindsight as delaying the inevitable exercise
of delimitation and worsening the grievances of the States which have already
performed better in the area of population control.
2) Option 1 – extend the freeze on the strength of Lok Sabha for 25-30 more years, and
undertake delimitation for allocation of seats to the States and the re-adjustment of
constituency limits based on 2027 Census. In such a scenario, southern States are
likely to lose seats (some estimated projections suggest about 25 seats across the
five States in southern India).
3) Option 2 – increase the overall strength of Lok Sabha (beyond the existing 543) by
keeping the existing ratio of population per seat, and entire delimitation of
allocation of seats and adjustment of constituencies may be undertaken accordingly.
This is likely to take the new strength of Lok Sabha to 848, where northern States
will gain more seats (Uttar Pradesh may gain over 60 seats) while the southern
States may gain little or nothing (Tamil Nadu is likely to gain 10 seats, while Kerala’s
seats may remain as it is). Ultimately, in this option too, the southern States will lose
their relative strength in the House.
It is evident that the democratic principles (One Voter – One Vote – One Value) and
the federal principles (equity amongst the States) are in conflict in the next upcoming
delimitation exercise in India. However, these principles can be harmonised by giving equal

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 importance to both. With this perspective, Option 0 discussed above maintains the federal
principle in centre, while following the democratic principle in the States. Another such
possibility of harmonising arises from the formula used by the various Finance
Commissions in India to recommend the horizontal sharing of net proceeds of taxes among
the States. For example, the Fifteenth Finance Commission assigns some weightage to the
population of the State as well as to the demographic performance based on improvements
in the fertility rates between 1971 and 2011.
Experience of Other Countries/Systems:
In USA, the number of seats in the House of Representatives has been capped at 435
since 1913. The population of the country has increased almost four times from 9.2 crore in
1910 Census to 33.1 crore in 2020 Census. The seats among the States are re-distributed
(referred as “apportionment”) after every decennial Census through the method of equal
proportion. This does not result in any significant gain or loss for any of the States. For
example, based on the Census of 2020, the re-apportionment has resulted in no change in
the number of seats for 37 States. While six States gained a total of seven seats,
correspondingly seven States lost one seat each.
In the 2024 elections to the European Union Parliament, which consists of 720
members, the number of seats is divided between the 27 member countries based on the
principle of ‘degressive proportionality’. Under this principle, the ratio of population to the
number of seats increases as the population increases. Further, the Lisbon Treaty
establishes a minimum of 6 seats and a maximum of 96 seats for the member States. For
example, Finland with a population of little over 55 Lakh in 2022 has 15 seats (average
population of 3.7 Lakh per seat), while Germany (the most populous member of EU) with a
population of 8.3 Crore has 96 seats (average population of 8.6 Lakh per seat).

Judicial Review of Delimitation Exercise

Article 329 bars the interference by courts by stating that the validity of any law relating to
the delimitation of constituencies or the allotment of seat to such constituencies shall not
be questioned in any court. In Kishorchandra Chhanganlal Rathod v. Union of India, 2024,
the Supreme Court has held that the constitutional courts can intervene when an order
severely conflicts with constitutional values, for example, if the Delimitation Commissions
orders are deemed clearly arbitrary. Article 329 does not impose a complete bar on judicial
review of every action of the delimitation exercise. Completely barring judicial intervention
would leave citizens without any forum to plead their grievances, which would be contrary
to the Court’s duties and the principle of Separation of Powers. Thus, courts can undertake
judicial review within a limited sphere at an appropriate stage in delimitation matters.

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