The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a constitutional amendment bill passed on September 20, 2023. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2023 reserves 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. However, it may take several years for women’s reservations to come into effect. This is because it depends on a delimitation exercise.
Home Minister Amit Shah has stated that this process will be transparent and handled by a delimitation commission. He confirmed this during Parliament’s ongoing Special Session, where it is expected that the Rajya Sabha will also approve the bill.
Frequently Asked Questions About Delimitation
What is delimitation?
It refers to the precise act of establishing boundaries or limits for territorial constituencies within a country or state that possesses a legislative body.
Constitutional provisions
It is outlined by the constitution and follows the process stated in Article 82. This article is part of Chapter 2 in the Constitution. This chapter explains the structure and member qualifications of the Parliament, including its session details, among others.
Article 82 discusses how seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies are redistributed after each census. To do this, Parliament must create a law. This law allows a Delimitation Commission to redraw the territorial constituencies. The creation of this law is dictated by Article 327. It states that Parliament can make laws about election-related matters, including constituency delimitation. Article 329 prevents any court challenges against this law.
Why is delimitation needed?
To ensure that every person’s vote has equal value, it’s necessary to redraw the boundaries of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies. The Lok Sabha must have constituencies distributed across every state, maintaining a balance between the state’s population and the number of constituencies. This approach is also applied for State Assemblies.
Over time, population changes necessitate adjustments to the boundaries and number of constituencies. The goal of delimitation is not just to reflect population changes. It seeks to divide geographical areas into seats fairly, to avoid allegations of gerrymandering. This process aims to stop the manipulation of seat boundaries for the benefit of any single political party.
What is gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is a hot topic every 10 years after the U.S. Census. This is when the boundaries of electoral districts are adjusted. Each district needs to have approximately equal populations. Gerrymandering is a way for U.S. politicians to manipulate these boundaries. This manipulation can give their party an unfair edge over other parties.
In simpler terms, the party in power can use gerrymandering to spread voters of the opposition party across many districts. This strategy can help their own candidates win. Alternatively, they can cluster opposition party voters into a few districts. This strategy can limit the number of seats the opposition can win. Gerrymandering is often criticised. It goes against the principles of compact and equal sized constituencies.
The term “gerrymandering” came from Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. In 1812, Governor Gerry made a law that defined new state senatorial districts. This law gave the Democratic-Republicans more representation by concentrating the Federalist Party vote into a few districts.
Gerrymandering played a role in many victories in the 2016 national and state elections. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are known to have used it.
Who conducts the delimitation
It is conducted by a powerful body, referred to as the Delimitation Commission or Boundary Commission. In India, the Delimitation Commission holds great authority. Its rulings are legally binding and can’t be challenged in court. The President of India decides when these orders take effect. The orders are presented to the House of the People and the State Legislative Assembly. However, they are not allowed to make changes to them.
How is delimitation done?
When a Delimitation Act is passed by Parliament, the Central government forms a Delimitation Commission. This Commission is led by a retired judge from the Supreme Court. The Commission’s decisions are legally binding and cannot be challenged in any court. Even Parliament doesn’t have the authority to alter the Commission’s orders.
The Chief Election Commissioner, one of the two Election Commissioners, is also a part of this Commission. If delimitation is taking place for a specific state, the state’s election commissioner will also be part of the Commission.
The commission is a temporary entity, with no permanent staff. It relies on EC employee assistance for a comprehensive exercise. This process involves collecting census data at district, tehsil, and gram panchayat levels and defining new boundaries.
The entire activity can span up to five years. During this period, the commission reviews population data, existing constituencies, and the number of seats under scrutiny. Additionally, it conducts stakeholder meetings and presents its suggestions to the government.
The commission releases a preliminary report in the Gazette of India. This is done to collect feedback from the public. After analysing the feedback, necessary amendments are made to produce the final report.
The President sets a date for implementing the commission’s recommendations. Copies of the commission’s decisions are presented to the Lok Sabha and the relevant legislative assembly. No changes can be made to these orders.
How many times Delimitation Commissions have been set up
Four Delimitation Commissions have been established in India so far. The first was set up in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act of the same year. The subsequent Commissions were established in 1963, 1973, and 2002, each under their respective Acts. However, the count of Lok Sabha constituencies hasn’t changed since the 1972 revision based on the 1971 Census. Currently, India has 543 Lok Sabha seats.
A Delimitation Commission was established in 2002, headed by retired Justice Kuldip Singh, following the 2001 Census. However, its suggestions were not implemented due to the 84th constitutional amendment. This amendment halted the rearrangement of Parliamentary constituencies until 2026, a pause of 25 years, to allow states to control their population. The commission’s term was lengthened twice, and it presented its findings in December 2007.
Understanding fixed constituency numbers across states
In 1952, a delimitation exercise, following the 1951 census, allocated 494 seats in the Lok Sabha. After the states were reorganised in 1956, another delimitation in 1963 increased the seat count to 522. The third delimitation, in 1973, pushed the count to 543, where it remains today.
Delimitation was halted twice for 25 years each time, in 1976 and 2001. The 2001 delimitation did redraw some constituency borders. This aimed to balance population numbers in each constituency. However, the total number of constituencies for each state stayed the same. These constituency boundaries have remained frozen since then. They will remain so until after the first census post-2026, or likely until after 2031.
The suspension occurred because some states had growing populations while others were shrinking. The idea was to allow states with high fertility rates time to decrease them, in line with the Centre’s population control strategies.
Yet, there’s a lingering concern. Despite the time passed, these states may still have larger populations, which could result in more seats for them.
In 2019, a study by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American think tank, made a projection. They predicted that the total Lok Sabha seats would increase to 846 by 2026 based on population forecasts. Their estimate suggested that Uttar Pradesh would increase its constituencies from 80 to 143. Bihar’s could potentially double from 40 to 79. However, the paper indicated that southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu could lose up to 16 seats.
Why are Southern states pushing back?
The issue of political representation has always been a hot topic in India’s federal structure. States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have successfully slowed population growth, argue that they shouldn’t be at a disadvantage due to their successful population control measures. Meanwhile, Northern states with rapidly growing populations, like those in the Gangetic plains, believe they are underrepresented given their larger populations.
Southern political parties have consistently opposed the idea of using population as the main criteria for delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. They believe it gives an unfair advantage to the northern and central states in the Lok Sabha.
Parties such as the DMK insist that states effectively implementing family planning, like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, would be penalised under this approach. On the other hand, states with population growth surges like UP, MP, and Bihar, due to a lack of effective family planning, could stand to gain.