Governance Delimitation GS Paper - 2 Indian Constitution E | Deepak UPSC Notes

Governance

Delimitation

GS Paper - 2

Indian Constitution

Elections

Statutory Bodies

What is Delimitation?

Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country to represent changes in population.

Why Delimitation?

To provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.

Fair division of geographical areas so that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an election.

To follow the principle of “One Vote One Value”.

How delimitation is carried out?

Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.

Under Article 170, States also get divided into territorial constituencies as per Delimitation Act after every Census.

Once the Act is in force, the Union governmentsets up a Delimitation Commission.

The first delimitation exercise was carried out by the President (with the help of the Election Commission) in 1950-51.

The Delimitation Commission Act was enacted in 1952.

Delimitation Commissions have been set up four times — 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under the Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.

Delimitation Commission

The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.

Composition: 

Retired Supreme Court judge

Chief Election Commissioner

Respective State Election Commissioners

Functions:

To determine the number and boundaries of constituencies to make population of all constituencies nearly equal.

To identify seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, wherever their population is relatively large.

In case of difference of opinion among members of the Commission, the opinion of the majority prevails.

The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court.