GS Paper II

News Excerpt:

The delimitation of constituencies for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies is to be carried out on the basis of the first Census after 2026.

What is Delimitation?

• It is the process of determining the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each state for the Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies, including determining seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• It also aims at a fair division of geographical areas into seats to guard against allegations of gerrymandering, which means redrawing seat boundaries in a way that no political party has an unfair advantage over another.
• The Delimitation Commission, established under Parliament's act, performs this process, which was carried out after the 1951, 1961, and 1971 Census.

What is the constitutional requirement?

• Democracy refers to the rule or government by the people, elected by a majority with the principle of 'one citizen-one vote-one value'.
• The number of seats in the Lok Sabha was fixed at 494, 522, and 543 based on the 1951, 1961, and 1971 Census, with an average population of 7.3, 8.4, and 10.1 lakh per seat.
• However, the number of seats was frozen as per the 1971 Census to encourage population control measures so that States with higher population growth do not have higher seats, which was done through the 42nd Amendment Act until 2000 and extended by the 84th Amendment Act until 2026.
• The year 2026 was chosen because the assumption was that if the National Population Policy worked as planned, by 2026, there would be a roughly equal number of births and deaths in India.
• As per the current provisions in the Constitution, the next delimitation exercise should occur based on the first Census carried out after 2026, 25 years after the 84th Amendment.
• In a normal course, this would have meant that delimitation would have happened after the 2031 Census. However, the Census of 2021 could not be carried out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Challenges regarding delimitation:

• The population explosion in the last five decades has been uneven, with some states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan experiencing greater increases than States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• An estimate by political scientists says that if Lok Sabha seats were to be redistributed according to the current distribution of the population, the northern states might have as many as 32 seats more, while the southern states might have up to 24 seats fewer.
• For instance - Kerala could lose six of its current 20 Lok Sabha seats and Tamil Nadu 11 of its 39.
• This political marginalisation of the South for demographic reasons could create tensions.
• When the 15th Finance Commission decided to use the 2011 Census as a basis for the devolution of taxes from the central government to the states, the southern governments expressed concern about this move — the south’s share in the devolution of taxes has come down from 17.98% (14th Finance Commission) to 15.8% (15th Finance Commission).

Current options under discussion:

• Two options are being discussed for the revised delimitation exercise based on the projected population as of 2026:
  • Continuing with the existing 543 seats and redistributing them among states or
  • Increasing the number to 848 with a proportionate increase among states.

• Concerns:

• Both scenarios would disadvantage southern states, smaller northern states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, and northeastern states compared to northern states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
• This may go against federal principles and lead to disenchantment in the population of states that stand to lose representation.
• It also goes against the philosophy of freezing seats as per the 1971 Census, with states that have been better at controlling the population losing their political significance.

What can be an ideal solution?

• The delimitation exercise in India faces challenges due to the conflict between democratic and federal principles. To reconcile these, equal importance should be given to both.
• A Member of Parliament legislates on Union List matters like Defence, External Affairs, Railways, Telecommunication, Taxation, etc. and holds the Central government accountable.
• Most Central government schemes are implemented only by State governments.
• Hence, to maintain federal principles, the number of MPs in Lok Sabha should be capped at 543, while the number of MLAs in each state should be increased in line with the current population (without changing the number of Rajya Sabha seats).
• Meanwhile, the representation must be proportionate to the population — one person, one vote, one value. Parliament has the leeway to fine-tune the principle to ensure that, in some cases, relatively fewer people will continue to elect a Parliament member.
• For instance, in Tripura or Manipur, they gave two seats even though the population was not enough.
• Lakshadweep has one seat for just about 68,000 people.
• Parliament can always make such exceptional arrangements. It can specify that no state will lose the number of seats that it currently has.
• The most crucial reform for strengthening democracy is empowering local bodies of panchayats and municipalities, who engage with citizens daily. The devolution of powers and finances to these bodies should be significantly increased.

Prelims PYQ:

Q. With reference to the Delimitation Commission consider the following statements: (UPSC 2012)

1. The orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in a Court of Law.
2. When the orders of the Delimitation Commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly, they cannot effect any modification in the orders.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2