DELIMITATION

DELIMITATION

What is Delimitation?

• • The act of delimitating a country’s territorial constituencies to account for population shifts is known as delimitation. 
  • The Delimitation Commission needs to function without interference from the executive branch. 
  • The Commission’s decisions must be final under the Constitution and cannot be overturned in court because doing so would cause an election to be postponed indefinitely. 
  • Once laid before them, the orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be altered by the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly.

Need:

• • To guarantee equal representation for every segment of the population. 
  • Equal distribution of geographical areas to avoid giving any political party an advantage over others in elections.

• • To follow the tenet of “One Vote, One Value.” 

Composition:

• •  The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the Indian President and works in tandem with the Indian Election Commission. 
  • Retired justice of the Supreme Court 
  • Chief Electoral Commissioner All State Electoral Commissioners 

Process of Delimitation

• • In compliance with Article 82, the Parliament passes a Delimitation Act following every Census. 
  • As per Article 170, States undergo a territorial constituency division in compliance with the Delimitation Act following every Census.
  • After the Act takes effect, the Union government establishes a Delimitation Commission. 
  • With the Election Commission’s help, the President carried out the first delimitation exercise in 1950–1951. 
  • The Delimitation Commission Act was enacted in 1952. 
  • Delimitation Commissions were created four times under the Acts of 1952, 1962, 1973, and 2002: in 1952, 1963, 1973, and 2002. 
  • When the 1981 and 1991 Censuses were conducted, the delimitation was not present. 

Delimitation done in areas which have disadvantaged groups

• • A certain number of seats must be set aside in a State based on the proportion of SC or ST citizens there. 
  • After drawing the boundaries, the Delimitation Commission looks at the distribution of the population in each constituency. 
  • Only the districts with the largest proportion of residents who are Scheduled Tribes are eligible to use ST.
  • When determining how to divide up Scheduled Castes, the Delimitation Commission takes two factors into account. 
  • It selects congressional districts with higher concentrations of Scheduled Castes. 
  • It also scatters these constituencies throughout the different regions of the State, though.
  • This is done because the population of Scheduled Castes is generally spread evenly throughout the country. 
  • These reserved constituencies may be replaced each time the Delimitation exercise is conducted. 
  • Not all disadvantaged groups are in the same situation.

Functions of the Delimitation Commission

• • The Delimitation Commission is a strong body whose rulings are enforceable.
  •  There is no way to challenge its rulings in court. No changes are permitted to the copies of the orders that are submitted to the Lok Sabha and the appropriate legislative assemblies. 
  • The number and boundaries of the constituencies must be determined by the Delimitation Commission so that, to the greatest extent possible, each seat has the same population.
  • Additionally, the Commission designates which seats in regions with significant populations of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes are to be set aside for those communities. 
  • The majority decision will be taken into consideration if there is a disagreement among the members of the Commission.
  • The Commission releases draft proposals for public feedback in newspapers printed in regional languages in addition to 
  • The official state gazette, the Indian Gazette. 
  • It also hosts public meetings where anyone can attend and express their opinions verbally or in writing. 
  • If necessary, the draught proposal is modified.
  • The final decree becomes operative on the day the President designates after it is published in the Gazettes. 

Duties of the Delimitation Commission

• • Readjusting the representation of the various territorial constituencies in the House of the People and the Legislative Assembly of each state shall be the responsibility of the Commission, based on the data from the most recent population census.

Delimitation Commission – Significance

• • A ruling made by the Delimitation Commission of India is considered to have absolute jurisdiction, meaning that it cannot be overturned by a court or by a piece of legislation. 
  • But evidence has shown that, as of a particular date supplied by the Indian President, these directives from the Indian Delimitation Commission are being complied with. 
  • The Delimitation Commission is an independent body supported by legislation that operates outside the political parties and the executive branch.
    
  • It determines the number and boundaries of constituencies in order to guarantee that the population is distributed fairly among all of them. 
  • finds the seats set aside for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in areas with a sizable population. 

Delimitation Commission – Criticism

• • States may wind up with more seats in the House of Representatives if they don’t care about population control. States in the South that encouraged family planning may find themselves with fewer available seats. 
  • Despite delimitation being done in 2008 based on the 2001 census, the number of seats in the Assemblies and Parliament that were decided upon in 1971 stayed the same.
  • Growing populations are each represented by a single representative, with a maximum of 550 Lok Sabha seats and 250 Rajya Sabha seats, respectively, as per the constitution.