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Delimitation

What is Delimitation?

Delimitation means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. The main objective of delimitation is to provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.

Delimitation in India:

Under Article 82 of the Constitution Upon the completion of each census, the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the division of each State into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted by such authority and in such manner as Parliament may by law determine.

The commission composes of a retired Supreme Court judge, the Chief Election Commissioner of India and respective State Election Commissioners.

The of orders commission come into force on a date to be specified by the President of India. The copies of its orders are laid before the House of the People and the State Legislative Assembly concerned, but no modifications are permissible therein by them. In India, Delimitation panels were set up in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.

Why delimitation was not done after every census?

The Constitution requires that, to the greatest extent possible, the ratio between the number of Lok Sabha seats each state receives and its population be the same throughout all states. This clause gave unintended benefits to states that had shown little interest in population control measures. The southern states, had more success in population management were particularly fearful of losing meaningful political participation. To resolve these fears, the Constitution was amended in 1976 to suspend delimitation until 2001. Another amendment postponed this until 2026.