Everything you want to know about constituency delimitation?

What is Delimitation?

Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixinglimits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country to representchanges in population.

Why Delimitation?

To provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.

Fair division of geographical areas so that one politicalparty doesn't have an advantage over others in an election.

To follow the principle of "One Vote One Value".

How delimitation iscarried out?

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

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

Once the Act is in force, the Union government sets up aDelimitation Commission.

The first delimitation exercise was carried out by thePresident (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.

There was no delimitation after the 1981 and 1991 Censuses.

DelimitationCommission

The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President ofIndia 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 the 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 theCommission, the opinion of the majority prevails.

The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power bodywhose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before anycourt.

Current Position ofDelimitation

In the 2009 General elections, 499 out of total 543Parliamentary constituencies were newly delimited constituencies.

This affected the National Capital Region of Delhi, The Union Territory of Puducherry and all other states except J&K, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand Manipur and Nagaland.

What will happen now?

Delimitation will be done in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipurand Nagaland

A Central notification issued by the Ministry of Law andJustice

What will happen inAssam

Boundaries of Assembly segments will change as per the census of 2001 Upper Assam will have slightly more constituencies at the cost of lower Assam. The overall number will remain the same. As there is no time for a Delimitation Commission to finish it before the 2021 Assembly election, the Election Commission of India may rearrange the Assembly boundaries of Assam for 2021 Assembly election which has to be ratified by the Delimitation Commission later.

Will there be morethan 126 constituencies in Assam?

At this moment no. 2021 Assembly election will have 126Assembly constituency. But later it may change as per the suggestion of the DelimitationCommission.