Govt to bring bill for extending embargo on delimitation

In 1975, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had put a freeze on delimitation of constituencies till the 2001 census through Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act as a measure to boost family planning norms.

The spokesperson said readjustments and rationalisation of territorial constituencies in the states, without altering the number of seats per state in the Lok Sabha on the basis of 1991 census, would also be carried out to remove imbalances caused due to uneven growth of population in different constituencies.

She said that readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies would also be conducted in each State Assembly without altering the number of seats again on the basis of 1991 census.

The Bill would also ensure refixing the number of seats served for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

The exercise for readjustment and rationalisation of constituencies as also refixing the number of SC and ST seats would be entrusted to the Delimitation Commission to come up with a suitable legislation after the Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by the Parliament.

The Cabinet decision to entrust the task to the Delimitation Commission in effect turns down the plea of the Election Commission to undertake this exercise.

Following the census exercises of 1951, 1961 and 1971, a Delimitation Commission was constituted each time to carry out the task of determination of the total number of seats to be allocated to the states in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies and readjustment of territorial constituencies.

While on the basis of the 1951 census figure, the average population for a Parliamentary constituency in major states worked out to 7,32,654, it was 8,89,257 and 10,50,000 on the basis of 1961 and 1971 census figures respectively.